First Time Experiences

It may have been having children (and everything connected with giving birth) that began to change how I felt about my body and my attitude to wearing clothes. Whether it was the realisation that my body had achieved so much more than just being my physical self, the time constraints caused by new-born twins, or a combination of both, I became more accepting of how I looked, and less concerned about how other people thought I looked. Whatever the cause, it led to my spending more time at home wi

After becoming the first woman to make Partner in a London Executive Search Firm, Lucy decided it was time to do something a bit different. So she packed away her suit, exchanged it for a pair of Morris Dancing hankies and some vampire fangs and decided to write a book. Over the past year, Lucy has been working her way through a self-penned A-Z of British Subculture - from Aristocrats, Battle Re-enactors and Circus Performers to Xtreme Sport Fanatics, Yogi's and 'Zeitgeist' Political Activists

A short video by Emma Sullivan of Brighton University, featuring BN Youth Officer Daryl Jones, which looks closer at what the attraction of naturism is today.

“I’ll be back,” writes newcomer Robert Hulme after his first YBN experience. Unlike many of you who will be reading this I don't come from a naturist family, I don't have any naturist friends and in fact I'd never really looked into naturism. So it came as quite a shock to my friends and family when I announced that I was going along to the YBN gathering in Telford. Nakedness has always been fairly natural to me: whenever I'm alone (and in private!) I'm naked - it just feels a lot more natural

It was a year ago that my parents first told me they were going to a naturist club on a Friday night. Until then I had been under the impression that they were just going swimming: watching the waistline like most parents. After a few experiences of naturism on holiday in Europe, they decided to take a deep breath and take off all their clothes in slightly less exotic Chepstow. It was here, on this Friday, that I had my first naturist experience. I went in with all of the fears, worries and doub

Sitting on a towel on a bench, squinting uncomfortably into the sun to see the band playing on the bus, and suddenly realising you’re naked is something you’d normally expect to be a dream, but it wasn’t a dream, it was Saturday night’s reality. These moments of odd realisation were dispersed throughout the evening at random rather than regular intervals, and although always surprising, were never shocking. We’d come, Beth and I, to our first naturist event, having seen an advert for the York M

Recently I attended my first naturist event. It took place at York’s Maize Maze on a sunny Saturday night in July. I had seen an advert for the maze, which mentioned some special events, including “Naked Maze Night”. This intrigued me, so not quite believing that this could be what it seemed to be, investigated further. It turned out that this was indeed a naturist event, and one that was open to people like me who had never done this before. Having discussed this with my husband and a friend

Martin and I had seen an advert for a naturist holiday in America and discussed that when funds allowed us we would like to go. At this point in time we were unaware of organisations such as the YBN or naturist clubs and that they existed in the UK. Looking back, I am not sure why this type of holiday appealed to us so much. I think it just looked so relaxing to be in the sun without any clothes on. On an evening at the pub with Debbie, a close friend I have known since school, I brought up the

I suppose it goes back to my birth, I arrived before the midwife got there and when the doctor came he said “where is this natural baby?” So Natural is what I was called in the family. Growing up on the edge of the countryside I spent most of my childhood outdoors, up trees and skinny dipping in ponds and streams, were summers really longer then? Naked kids playing in woods and meadows didn’t raise any eyebrows in that more innocent age. Alas childhood doesn’t last forever and with age came,

I hadn't thought of naturism until I met my fiancé five years ago, and even when discovering his father was a long time naturist and he too had a preference to be without clothes, I didn't think much of it. Then aged 25, to say my knowledge of naturism was scarce would be an understatement, not only had I never heard of 'naturist clubs', but the whole 'being naked' thing was new to me. At some point in my life I must have gained a basic understanding of the term 'naturist' as I did know it refe

If you are curious about naturism, there's really no substitute for experiencing it for yourself. No one can ever truly describe that first-time feeling of freedom from clothes, with your body fully exposed to the sun and the breeze. Swimming without clothes gives a feeling that you wouldn't believe - a huge difference in sensation, even though it is just a tiny bathing suit you have left behind. Here's a guide for first-timers from Roni Fine: Roni Fine's beginner’s guide to Naturism So you