Fleeting Warm Weather

2012 has rolled around and a stretch of warm weather has come and gone! I made it to Prior Lake the other day for my first outdoor naturist experience of the year. There was a solid 15 people (11 men 4 women) on a weekday afternoon in about 18C weather. A great start to a new season!

I have plans to continue to write this year on this blog and probably I will create a sister blog about facilities. Places that mostly same nudity takes place in a non-naturist setting. Locker/change rooms at pools, gyms, hotels or anywhere with a sauna or steam room. I hope to include pictures of these facilities whenever I can. 

For this blog, I hope to journalize several events this year:

• Trips to local beaches such as regulars Prior Lake and  Sayward Beach but hopefully also Royal Roads Beach and perhaps I'll try Witty's lagoon. 
• I hope to hike to secluded areas with water (or none) and suntan or swim nude. Perhaps I'll even try freehiking!
• Announce local Arbutus Park Club events for the summer. (Yes we hope to have at least a few!)
• World Naked Bike Ride for Victoria BC in June.
• Wreck Beach - I hope to go for an entire weekend this year.

Have a great summer folks! 

-Marauder

Does adwords work for nudist clubs?

A year ago I was asked by my local nudist club, the Arbutus Park Club, to build and maintain a club website. I went the easy route and used a wordpress blog and by february I think the website was up!

The next question was how to drive traffic. There are several ways to do this. I considered the following:

1. Dynamic relevant content for Google to use.
2. Social Media campaigns
3. Advertising (specifically Google adwords)

The Wordpress based website is absolutely a non-dynamic design. The content is static and fairly basic. Social media campaigns are rather effective these days but they take a large time commitment that I was hoping to avoid. That left me with advertising.

I briefly signed up to have advertisements placed on this blog - a huge failure! However; because i had an Adwords account, Google sent me a free 100$ credit for Adwords advertising. I decided to use it for the Arbutus Park Club website instead.

The process is simple in concept. You basically tell Adwords the following:

1. When and where do you want to advertise
2. How much do you want to spend in a time period
3. What keywords you want driving traffic to your site
4. How much do you want to spend on each click for a specific keyword
5. What keywords should never lead to an ad for your website

I tinker with these settings often but I generally pay 50 to 75 cents per click. I capped my daily budget at $2.50. I received about 4-6 visitors per day and Adwords was constantly telling me to increase my daily budget for more clicks!

There are a couple of struggles with this kind of advertising. The first issue is what keywords do really want to spend your money on? Generically advertising on the keywords nudist and naturist works but its really not ideal.

Naturist advertising is flagged as 'Adult' by Google. I disagree with this label but I chose not to fight it. This flagging means that only people who disable Google's Safesearch will see any of these ads. Frankly this mostly means people who at some point search for pornography. 

Now before I sound like an anti-pornographic crusader, I understand and accept that many many men watch pornography. I myself watch pornography and I accept that somebody looking for pornography may stumble across naturist information and successfully differentiate between his current state of sexuality and a future state of naturism. 

A more ideal scenario is that an individual, at some point in time,  turns off safesearch for any reason - sexual or non sexual but searches again at some other time and finds naturist information while not in a sexual mindset. This preference leads to the list of 'negative keywords' that Adwords uses to let you restrict the searches that can lead to your website.

For example: I have banned all body words that are used as slang. Tits, ass, pussy, and cock for example. This way somebody who searches for 'nice tits on a nudist beach' will not see an advertisement for my website but somebody who searches for 'relaxing day on a nudist beach' could indeed see my advertisement.

This leads to a cat and mouse chase. I keep tabs on the keywords used to get to my website (using Google analytics or the wordpress dashboard) and anytime I see a keyword that I wish hadn't been used to find my website, I ban it on adwords so that I am at least not paying for a sexual search result.

Anyhow, All this work lead to me using up most of my 100$ credit. The traffic changes were fairly profound.

In the summer, June,July,August - when people are out enjoying free nude beaches - I got 100 pageviews per month. In september and October I got about 250 pageviews each. Then in november, I enabled my adwords campaign and I got 550 pageviews. So for about 55$ I drove 100 unique persons to my website and they looked at 2-3 pages each (which is great considering I only have about 5 pages total)

This meant I paid about 55 cents per unique paid visitor. It is difficult to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the campaign. I will simply speculate. Our club hosts monthly nude swims and we generate revenue of at least 12$ per swimmer. Thus, to break even on this month's advertising, I need about 5 swim-visits to result from the campaign. 

So out of about 100 unique paid visitors, how many are even candidates? If this campaign leads to one new couple attending the december or January swim, I will be pleased but I cannot consider spending actual money instead of free credits unless I had actual data showing the paid results netted me actual attendees.

If anybody out there have any experience with Adwords they'd like to share OR if you have any questions they'd like to ask, please reply in the comments or email me at maraudingnaturist@gmail.com

The Best of Poetry in the Raw - 2011

8pm Monday, September 26, 2011.

Victoria Events Center, 1415 Broad St, Victoria BC, Canada

Advance tickets $15 @ Solstice Cafe or $18 at the door.

The date appears to have been set for the 2011 edition of Poetry in the Raw. The 2011 performance will be the final Poetry in the Raw. I confirmed this unfortunate fact at this year's WNBR. 

The 2010 performance was absolutely stunning. I was completely impressed by the bravery of the readers. I fully expect this final performance to be amazing as well.

This event features readers performing completely nude. They come onto stage nude without fanfare or striptease. The nudity is to increase the power of the performance and is absolutely not to titillate. Do not whistle or hoot or do anything else you might want to do in a strip club - it will not be tolerated. 

The event is also clothing optional for the audience. Although I would prefer simply being nude in the audience the entire time(why bother with a striptease), the host or hostess will likely invite you to remove one piece of clothing after each performance and invite you to be nude only at the end. 

This is a very unique event and it will likely never occur again. I highly encourage attendance. Buy your tickets in advance at Solstice Cafe and arrive early for good seats. (Those who bought early get seated first). All proceeds go towards sending the Victoria Slam team to the nationals in Toronto.

Sayward Beach Update - No Nude Bathing Sign Destroyed. - July 25 2011

I went to Sayward beach today. It was cloudy and not particularly warm. I was still depressed about the "No Nude Bathing" sign placed at one end of the beach. I went anyways.

The nude section of the beach was deserted and the textile portions were not much busier.There was only one person in the nude sections. He was standing at the base of a ladder that descends from what I think is cordova bay golf course property. In any case, his shirt said cordova bay on it. So I assume he was affiliated with the golf course in some manner.

Anyway the guy was removing the sign - destroyed. The 'No Nude Bathing' sign had the paint scratched off of it - probably with a rock. It was also broken in half but he might have done that to remove it.

I spoke with him coyly to get some information about the sign. I discerned the following:

1. This man had erected the sign in the first place.
2. He had done so on request of the people who live above the north section of the nude beach.
3. He blamed 'kids' for the damage but he clearly knew it was the nudists.

I don't know if he planned to erect another sign. He posted the sign on behalf of people who are probably millionaires. This could mean further trouble.

The good news is that this opposition to nude sunbathing is not a grass roots outpouring from those who walk the beach. The opposition is simply from some rich folk who like to golf and have views most of us cannot afford.

If another sign is erected or you have any more information about Sayward (aka parker) beach please post a comment or email me at

maraudingnaturist@gmail.com

No Nude Bathing Sign at Sayward Beach

Someone has put up a sign that says 'No Nude Bathing' at Sayward Beach. The sign is black and white without any other markings and identifications. It is located at about the mid point of nude use on the beach.

I don't know when it was posted but I am saddened and angered by it.

I think it likely that the sign was erected by a beach goer and not by the district of saanich or any other government employee. The sign does not have any mention of 'Saanich Parks and Recreation' or identify at all whose sign it is.

If anyone has any ideas when or who this sign was posted, please let me know. Please also send ideas on  how we should react to this aggressive response to decades of unofficial nude use at this beach.

-Marauder

Wreck Beach World Record Skinny Dip Attempt July 2011 - Short Version

For those of you who don't wish to read a lengthy ramble about my personal trip to Wreck Beach... Here's a short version.

Wreck Beach's personal record to beat: 389 from 2010. (Unless the total from 2009 is larger, and please let me know if it was. I can't find the total online as of yet.

The world record to beat was at least 748, the highest number from the 2010 skinny dip. I think this was from Haulover beach. (South Florida Free Beaches)

Wreck gathered about 630 official participants. I think there was more but a bit of disorganization cost the count a bit.

Aside from the event being poorly managed and still wonderful fun... Wreck Beach failed to break the world record but succeeded in setting a new personal best! They also raised over $3000 in donations, mostly from one source. They also got a $19 donation from me since I needed a single dollar more for change for the bus and all I had was a twenty. I think I got a membership out of the deal but the fellow I gave the money to was stoned out of his mind.

Congrats to Wreck Beach and the Wreck Beach Preservation Society!

Wreck Beach 2011 World Record Skinny Dipping Attempt - July 2

I mentioned in February that AANR had cancelled the 2011 world record Skinnydip. I felt that it was a great promotional tool to promote nudism. Anyways, they cancelled it but the Wreck Beach Preservation Society (WBPS) decided to go ahead and attempt to break their own record skinny dip.I think that record was 389 from 2010. I can't find the figure for 2009 so if anyone knows the Wreck Beach number for 2009, it would be great if you posted in the comments.

I intended to catch the 7am ferry from Victoria to Vancouver (Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen). I ended up sleeping in and I only caught the 9am ferry. Travel time from Where I live in Victoria, to Wreck beach is probably 4-5 hours. I'll break down the distance I traveled because I want to get across what a wonderfully committed nudist I really am!

by car:Victoria to Swartz Bay: 40 minutes
by BC Ferries:Schwartz Bay to Tsawwassen: 100 minutes
by Translink Bus - #620:Tsawwassen to Canada Line - Bridgeport Station: 35 minutes
by Canada Line - Bridgeport Station to Broadway - City Hall Station: 12 minutes
By Translink Bus - #99: Broadway - City Hall Station to UBC Bus loop North - 30 minutes
By foot: UBC to Wreck Beach - 20 minutes

So 3.6 hours of actual travel time. Does not include waiting for transfer time. Transfers push this trip well over 4 hours and longer on the return trip. I am committed to the cause!

So I arrived at Wreck Beach Trail 6 at about 12:30. At the top of trail six there is a vendor cart, a two-stall pit bathroom, and a park sign leading to the descending staircase. The staircase is steep, long, and only has a hand rail on one side - for use of people mostly on their way back up. My feet hurt by the time I reached the bottom. The return trip up was worse but I'll mention that later.The walk was worth it. The beach was huge, full of people, and the weather was spectacular. About twenty degrees and sunny!

Near the bottom of the staircase, a drunk and or stoned man was yelling about the skinny dip. He made little sense except to confuse people about the financials of the attempt. His chanting made it sound like there was a 5$ fee to participate. There was no fee at all to participate. There was; however, a generous anonymous donor. The donor had very specific requirements: if between 0 and 999 persons participate, 2$ per person will be donated to the WBPS. However, if 1000 or more persons participate then 5$ per person will be donated. This motivation likely led the drunk man to pontificate but he may have done more harm than good. Confusion was rife among the 1000 plus person crowd.

This was by far the largest crowd of nude persons I had been in. There had been the 40 person turnout for my first Arbutus Park Club swim in January 2009. There was the 100 plus nude persons at the world naked bike rides. Prior Lake can get up to 50 plus nude persons. At Wreck Beach, I was among as many as 1000 nude persons, and then another 1000 people in various states of dress. This was an amazing leap beyond my previous measures of social nudity!

I was desperate to people watch - preferably without gawking. What kind of people came to Wreck Beach? Students? Hippies? The high and the drunk? The hardcore male nudist for sure was out and about. Eclectic mix probably best describes the crowd.

The largest contingent was the single male, over tanned and not particularly young. I know this creature well and he is found at all places where nude is not rude. The student must have been a large factor as well. I have never seen such a large proportion of young individuals at a nude location in Victoria. I saw only a few families with kids around although I was told that there is a 'family' section further up the beach to the north. Similarly I heard of a gay section with 'bushes' to the south.

All bodies types were present as well. The large and the small. Mostly white with many Asians and at least one black person in the form of a vendor. A huge swath of age groups - all decades from 20-60 were well represented. I imagine the 70+ category is kept out due to the exhausting staircase at trail 6.  I could not detect any  other patterns at all. Truly a large sample that I would have loved to run statistical analysis on. I imagine I would find many cool patterns in the math (and I do have a statistical background) but nothing shouted out from the norm.

There were at least 20 vendors selling everything from beer to some sort of organic rum infused pudding that was actually more like banana bread. Water and juice available and other normal foods were available too.

I did not attempt to enumerate the proportion of women. My best guess is maybe 35-40% women. Of the nudes, the proportion was lower and maybe 25-33%. Most of the women on the beach were in groups of 3 or more. Many were topfree but not nude. Solo women were around but quite rare.

I read, I tanned, I walked around the main section of beach surrounding Trail 6. I did not manage my time well and so I was not able to walk the length of the beach. At 1:45 I began to move towards trail 6 again to see when exactly the skinny dip would take place. I managed to hear Judy Williams mention 2:20pm. This suggested 20 minutes after the advertised time! I was not impressed at all. 2:20 passed and then 2:40 with many "5 minute warnings" being given and then ignored. The first photograph of the skinny dip was taken at around 3pm. "What a joke" crossed my mind several times.

Before I describe the actual record attempt, I will describe my best guess as to why the record attempt was delayed by an entire hour. Greed. Perhaps that is too harsh but it had to be about fundraising. Running the WBPS must have lots of expenses because the leadership was dying to milk the anonymous donor for every dollar they could muster. I forgave them during the actual skinny dip because it was lots of fun to be in a crowd of 630 plus nude and splashing and having a great time.

The skinny dip began with the photographers ladder being taken to the waters edge. This was probably 100 meters from the trail head. Slowly the nudists all filtered out and many group photos were taken while we all stood about knee deep in water.  About 20 shots were taken, with many nudes continuing to filter in at a steady pace. After the photos the group began to disperse into either deeper waters or back to the dry beach.

Then Judy Williams (the main organizer) ran to the group. She was panicked! She had been left out of the photos and no official count had been done. Would WBPS get any money at all? Well people called back the group and more photos were taken. Unfortunately several hundred persons had been lost back to the main beach. Even more people were disgusted with the fact that in order to be counted, we had to wait around and exit through a single file. I initially thought they wanted to photograph us one by one! Those of us willing walked through single file and were counted. Approximately 630 of us. I think another 200 or more could have been counted if leadership had been there from the start. Alas!

I bumped into a friend from the APC, Phaethon, and I sat with him for about an hour on the beach until about 4:20 when I decided I better bust my butt to get back to Tsawwassen in time for the 7pm sailing to Victoria. I   made an accident or two getting back to the Canada Line but I did somehow get to the ferries in time. I was even able to pick up my parents at the airport in Victoria at 10:30 that evening!

So we broke Wreck Beach's 2010 mark by several hundred. Unfortunately we did not break the world record. I hope there is another attempt next year and I hope some of you will join me.

Cheers!