Wreck Beach

I wrote this blog for those readers who have never visited Vancouver, B.C. People who haven’t heard of the biggest nude beach in North America. It's located right on the campus of the University of British Columbia. I know because I took every opportunity to spend time down there, enjoying the sun, conversing with other students, meditating...oh, who I am kidding? I went down there to stare at naked women.

Nude beaches in Canada are different than clothing optional beaches in California. If you can find a nude beach in Southern California there's a good chance that it's either littered with needles, used condoms or a dead body. In Canada, as in Europe, nudity isn’t considered taboo or even risque. Whole families spend a day, naked in the sun. We Americans feel nudity is better left to the privacy of your own home where people are less likely to laugh at you.

Growing up in conservative Wisconsin left me with some hang ups as to public nudity. The only time you're naked outdoors in Wisconsin is when a bear is attacking your tent and you don't have time to put on underwear.

My son, Tyson, was about six or seven years old when he came to live with me at UBC. Wreck Beach is on the other end of campus from family housing. As we walked he would pick flowers to give to the prettiest girls on the beach. Let me tell you a kid with flowers beats a puppy hands down when it comes to meeting women. No matter how cute the puppy might be.

Some of the locals make a living on the beach selling everything from margaritas to hashish. You could always tell if someone was a cop because they would be wearing underwear. Technically it's illegal to be nude in public but that hasn't stopped thousands from descending on Wreck Beach every summer. Some of them live down there all through the summer. It’s like Woodstock without the acid. Although I can’t swear to the acid.

It's not easy getting down to the beach. You've got to crawl down this incredibly steep, winding path for about a quarter of a mile before you hit sand. Walking back up is a fine workout for anyone. (Especially if you're carrying cameras around your neck) Wreck Beach lives on and always will. The arch conservative elements of Vancouver politics have always threatened to bulldoze a road down to the beach so the cops can easily patrol it but that has never happened. I hope it never will. Where else can you be naked without getting laughed at?