Since Wreck Beach in Vancouver, BC is one of the world's best nude beaches, it stands to reason that they would be able to put a lot of naked bodies in the water as part of the AANR simultaneous skinny-dip record attempt.
And indeed in 2010, they did - around 400 to be exact (or not so exact...
). Anyway, here is a pic and there are a couple more (copyrighted) at this link:
hxxp://www.wreckbeach.org/main2.html
Having this AANR simultaneous skinny-dip thing every year is one way in which all the various clubs and beaches around North America can assert bragging rights when it comes to nudity at their location. You would think that might be the case when Sandy Hook, Haulover and Wreck go head to head in the skinny-dip attempt business. They are
suppose to be working together to support the AANR's broader goal, but we know they are secretly competing against one another to see who can put the most naked people in the water!! Right??
So, in 2010 - which nude beach in North America came out on top? The three biggies - Gunnison (Sandy Hook), Haulover and Wreck all had strong participation. The winner? HAulover with over 700 bodies! Then came Wreck with 389, and Gunnison with (only) around 250. But, there is a catch here! Only someone who has been to these beaches like me could have picked this up. OK, here goes - the Wreck beachers had to be in the water at 12PM whereas the others went in at 3PM. This was to take into account the different time zones and make the AANR attempt truly simultaneous. but we all know that nude beaches do not really fill up until after 2PM! So at Wreck at noon, only probably 30% or less of the bathers had arrived on the beach that day! Taking that into consideration, how many people do you think Wreck
could have put in the water if they had been able to hold their attempt at 3PM? 1000 or more? Quite possibly! I know Wreck, and if any beach could have done it, they could have. So now, we must put an asterix next to these attempt results. Haulover won at over 700 bodies, but, like Roger Maris found out in 1961 when he broke the home run record, some people (mainly me!) see it differently! Wreck
could have bested that 700 mark easily, IMHO. But we will never know for sure as long as the AANR rules stay the way that they are. Personally, I think they should move the attempt time around a bit from year to year to give west coast beaches optimum conditions for getting the highest numbers possible in the water. That would be fair, no?
Incidently since we are talking about the beaches here, Hippie Hollow nude beach in Texas, which is a relatively small beach, put around 250 people in the water during their attempt. Considering the size of the beach and the time zone thing (they would have gone in at 1PM or 2PM, not 3PM), that is a really strong showing. Congratulations to the folks there! That brings up another point: How about awarding a prize for dip numbers
per beachgoer? Normalize it as they say to nullify the influence that beach size has on participation. Which beach has the most enthusiastic cadre of skinny-dippers?
KLondike