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!

WNBR 2011 From Around the World

SUPERCOCKROACH666 has created a YouTube playlist of World Naked Bike Ride videos from around the world. I have not watched more than a few of the videos and so I cannot verify the quality or content of any of the videos he has included in the playlist.

Now that you've read my boring disclaimer... enjoy the playlist - Click here

Click on individual videos or click the 'Play All'  button at the top.

Here also is a recap of Victoria WNBR 2011 videos and photosets that I have tweeted. Follow me on twitter at @naturistmaraudr

http://t.co/4JDeXDB
http://t.co/Qoki3vx
http://www.bit.ly/m7NACz

World Naked Bike Ride - Victoria BC - June 11 2011

"Less Gas More Ass!"

This past Saturday, I participated in my first World Naked Bike Ride. It was a beautiful sunny day, moderately warm temperatures, with a sea of smiling faces! I rode nude for about 80 minutes throughout the City of Gardens and I will do it again next year!

My friend Dave from the Arbutus Park Club has been bugging me to attend the WNBR for two years. Last year I attended the pre-ride festivities but I did not participate in the riding for a few reasons:

1. My brother-in-law's birthday party was being held shortly after the event
2. I did not have enough cycling experience to feel comfortable riding downtown
3. I did not have my own bicycle and riding nude is a very personal experience between a human and a piece of metal!

So I asked for a bicycle for my birthday last year, and the cheap piece of shit bike from Canadian Tire was only ready for use by late fall. The weather has been poor for most of this year and I only started practicing riding a few weeks ago. It turns out I'm a decent cyclist as long as I have lost of space to swerve suddenly.

So this year I had a bike, I could sort of ride, and my brother in law was in Europe for his birthday. It Was On! Or was it? 

My graduation from UVIC was the Wednesday after the ride so early the morning before the ride, I went dress clothes shopping with my dad. We got home after 2pm, and the ride was at 3 sharp. I had to ask for a ride downtown from my dad! I didn't lie about what I was doing but I sure didn't offer any extra details.

Anyhow, thanks to a last minute ride, I got to the Legislative Buildings at 2:40 - plenty of time to spare. The ride ended up starting 10 minutes late anyways due to lack of organization (but that's all part and parcel of the WNBR)

I chit chatted with the other riders and I think I was the second person to get nude before the ride. I conversed with several people about the legality of nudity in british columbia and I even happened upon a fellow who was selling copies of my favourite webcomic. 20$ is a bit pricey for a magazine that is free online but if I had had the 20$ on me I would have gladly spent it for the excellent comic. I left my wallet (and unfortunately my bus pass) at home in my rush begging for a ride.

The ride started just before 3:10 and we took off towards James Bay and our first "stop" was at Fisherman's Wharf, a local tourist attraction - but we didn't really stop there and we continued onto Dallas rd towards Beacon Hill Park. 

We rode past the cruise ship terminal, and I huffed and puffed on my bike all the way up to Mile Zero at Beacon Hill Park. This is the pacific end of the Trans Canada Highway. It is also a memorial to Terry Fox

We took group photo's here for about 10 minutes. I have not found any good pictures yet of this but if I get some I will post them to my flikr account.

I discovered that I am so unused to my own bicycle that I lost it in a crowd of only 5 other bikes. I proceeded to convince myself that my clothes (inside a small backpack on my bike) and my bike itself were stolen during the group photo. I panicked a bit but eventually found my bike. Nobody around me seemed to care...

Anyhow, the rest of the ride went smoothly and I really recommend participating in a future ride if you support any of the three following messages:

1. Down with Big Oil!
2. Even clothed cyclists are as good as naked on the road. So drivers: please share the roads respectfully
3. Body Acceptance, body freedom, etc. The message that there is no shame in the natural human body.

Do not come to a WNBR expecting naturism. This is not naturism. The WNBR is a protest. Expect onlookers to gawk, photograph, and giggle at you. Most of them will be friendly and smile as well though!

Overall I had a great experience riding nude in the WNBR. For more information about the WNBR see their website at www.worldnakedbikeride.org

As mentioned earlier, I forgot my bus pass at home. I live only a short bus ride but a fairly long walk home. I was very tired and ended up walking my bike for most of it. It was torture... :)

For the very patient. here is a link to some pictures of the event. The pictures are very female oriented and my not-naturism alarms are going off. Since the event itself had nothing to do with naturism anyways, I am overlooking this glaring issue. The pictures have full nudity but are completely G rated. 

-Marauder

Naturist Birthday Presents

So my birthday this year came and went last week. I pointed Pandora, my girlfriend, towards the pocket towel or a camping trip up to Solsante. Lots of good books are available are also available at The Bare Boutique.

I received none of these items! Instead I received lovely gifts of whale watching, Seattle Mariner's baseball game, a new computer monitor and a cactus. So I'm spoiled, but not in a naturist sense!

The only thing I received that was at all related to naturism was a handmade birthday card from Pandora's boss. Maybe next year? Perhaps some of you have good ideas of gifts for a naturist? Let me know your ideas in the comments!

Enjoy...

Sayward Beach Photographs

My favourite clothing optional spot in Victoria is Sayward Beach. It's tucked away behind Cordova Bay Golf course and people are usually surprised to hear it even exists! It's a colder beach since it faces east but its truly a beautiful spot.

I've blogged about Sayward Beach here and also here before.

I stopped by recently and since nobody was nude on the beach in April, I was able to whip out my iPhone camera without feeling guilty. Here are the results - a few here and the rest are on flikr. The pictures were all taken at the lowest tide I've ever stumbled across at the beach. Click through the links for more info and pictures.


Sayward Beach - Description and directions - Click Here

Sayward Beach - Photographs - April 2011 - Click here

The main clothing optional beach

 The smaller, secondary clothing optional beach

A third, difficult to access beach. Excuse my finger!

Prior Lake Photographs

I had some spare time on a cold day and decided to visit Prior Lake to get some photographs. I am the most amateur of photographers. My iPhone takes fairly high quality photographs but some are blurry for reasons unknown to me. Last post, I simply uploaded all photographs into Blogger. This time I'm only going to put a few into blogger and place a link into flikr for the rest.

Prior lake - Description and directions - Click here

Prior Lake - Photographs - April 2011 - Click here

Margaret's Bay

Although some may argue with me whether 8 degrees Celsius is too cold to go nude, I refuse! So you might ask yourself, how did I get here? Here being at Margaret's Bay - although I have not yet determined if this is an official name. The trail that leads to the beach access is called Balmacarra Park.

I will start by reposting directions to get to this location. Please note that this bay is located in Saanich, British Columbia. Saanich is a suburb of Victoria. The directions are originally posted at the well known Clothing Optional BC website. This website is the authoritative resource for finding places to skinny dip in British Columbia. It also includes a far less authoritative listings for other places. Check it out now.

VICTORIA: Margaret's Bay . (GPS: N48 29.633 W123 18.698)"Victoria is surrounded by cold(!) water and many beaches. A prime example is at Margaret's Bay, which is backed by a steep, forested hill, making the beach quite private. The south end gets only the morning sun, so get away from the stairs by walking the 200 metres to the north end, which gets sun through the early afternoon. As an extra bonus, if you climb the craggy rocks at the north end, you'll see a concrete-walled salt-water pool, and a set of concrete stairs that seemingly lead to nowhere. (Relics of the past?) While not an 'official' CO beach, its remoteness, its 'hidden/unknown' status, and its availability of logs to build a screening-wall, make it enticing to visit." [A.C., Jun 2010]
Directions: Between Cadboro Bay and Cordova Bay, in Gordon Head, make your way to the intersection of Leyns Road and Balmacarra Road. (The best route there depends on your starting point.) Right at the intersection there is a City of Saanich 'beach access' sign and a trail that leads slightly downhill to the top of 75 metal steps that lead to the beach. Some parts of the street are marked 'no parking', so pay attention. For non-drivers, there's a securely-anchored bicycle-rack at the top of the stairs.

In March, there was absolutely no nude use among the 6 or so people I encountered. The beach is not more than 15 minutes by car from where I live, so if it turns out to be used for nude sunbathing and or skinny dipping in the salt water pool, I will be very pleased.

Here are some pictures of the beach. Except for the first picture, they are from the far end of the beach. Furthest from beach access.

Dream Holiday!

The Miami Masters tennis tournament begins today - March 21, 2011.  I love playing tennis and if I ever get the chance to play in the nude I surely will give it a go!

While reading about the upcoming event on wikipedia, I noticed the event is being held in Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida. I wondered aloud, "Just how far is that from Haulover Beach? The answer is not very far! According to Google Maps, the two locations are about a half hour apart.

So I can only imagine planning two weeks of lounging on the amazing Haulover beach intertwined with all the best professional tennis matches I can handle. A dream vacation to be sure.

Are there any other naturist tennis fans out there? I'd love to hear from you about potential tennis / nudist vacations. Please post them in the comments.

AANR to Attempt Ridiculously Chosen World Record

As I blogged recently, AANR has cancelled the 2011 3rd world record skinny dip attempt. This was due to lazy american clubs who felt they needed a break from organizing a world record attempt for this year. Instead? A world record attempt for most simultaneous persons hula hooping.

I disagree with this attempt for several reasons

1. Hula Hooping has nothing in particular to do with nudism. Except maybe its presence in 50s and 60s nudist exploitation films.
2. If the reason for not doing a 3rd skinny dip record attempt is the administrative burden for member clubs, why chose another record attempt? The clubs that do not wish to participate in the skinny dip attempt will surely not participate with this attempt either.
3. The mainstream media will have a field day describing images of nude persons in the act of hoola hooping. It will be mocked repeatedly whereas the world record skinny dip was well received.
4. The attempt to break the record will fail, perhaps brutally so.

AANR is of the mind that all publicity is good publicity. I disagree. We must strive not to reinforce the old stereotypes of old and promote the basic tenets of nudism. Hoola Hooping is a cheap gimmick and will not replace the overwhelming publicity that the skinnydip generated.

World Record SkinnyDip

I was dissapointed to hear that AANR had cancelled this year's record attempt due to the administrative burden. I was however, delighted to read on the wreck beach website that they still intend to hold their own record attempt of sorts! I hope to attend this June and I hope to see many of you as well!

more info here

Content?

Now that I have chosen my platform for the nudist club website, Its time to decide how to fill it!

so I ask you readers...

What kind of content should i create? What information must i have for somebody coming to the club site for the first time.

Please keep in mind that this is a site for an AANR affiliated club.

Please post suggestions to the comments..

eg place an idea for something to put into an FAQ, etc

Wordpress.com

So I'm considering going with wordpress.com for website hosting. It has a few advantages.

Pros:
1. Cost - looks like i can host a simple website for less than 20$/year
2. Ease - Due to the fact that its a blogging website, other members of the club than myself can update it.

Cons:
1. Lack of control - Cannot edit the html, can edit the css only for additional $$
2. ads - I'm not entirely sure but ads may appear on the site even if I get my own domain name

If anyone has any experience with this site please let me know in the comments

Web Hosting

Well, one of the first issues I've looked into for my new webpage project is what hosting company to use. I sent out a few initial emails and was surprised at the hostility I received. 

For example, hostgator flatly refused to host me repeatedly as I tried to figure out what exactly their policy was. They seemed to allow pornography but not nudism? I eventually drilled down and realized that what they were looking for is a guarantee that there would be no images of children, nude or even clothed on the site. The acronym FBI kept coming up over and over...

Can anyone recommend a good hosting site that are known to be ok with nudist websites? I probably won't even put any nude pictures up on it but I would like the club to have as much control over its site as possible.

If you have any comments or suggestions please use the comments

New Project: Website

I have been tasked with the creation of a website for my local travel club, APC.

What does this mean for you, my loyal readers? More Posts! - Especially in the upcoming months.

I will likely post questions, comments, and frustrations about creating and running a simple website for a nudist club.

I look forward to lively discussion with you all!

Comments welcome as always