WHAT'S THE NEWS? Nude Beach Alliance Formed To Win Back Nude Beaches

SANTA BARBARA AND VENTURA COUNTY NUDISTS
LAUNCH “WE WANT OUR NUDE BEACHES BACK” CAMPAIGN

After several years of discussion, a group of SCNA members and their friends have decided to get serious about the lack of nude beaches along the Los Angeles-Santa Barbara coast.

A subsidiary group of SCNA, calling itself The Nude Beach Alliance of Santa Barbara (NBA, for short) has started a web site and begun selling T-shirts proclaiming “We Want Our Nude Beaches Back!” in the hopes of generating interest in the local community for re-establishing one or more designated nude beaches in the area. “It has been five years since we were chased off Bates Beach,” said Sonya Robinson, a spokesperson for the new organization. “We continue to shop in Carpenteria on weekends, and the merchants are always telling us how they miss our business and that they wish we were still there. We have finally decided to find out how deep that desire is in the area. If enough people want us back, we’re going to make an effort here.”

The beach nudists refer to as Bate Beach is actually the northern fork of Rincon Beach that stretches into Santa Barbara County. Starting about a quarter mile north of the pedestrian ramp to the beach, that stretch of sand had been unofficially recognized as a nude/clothing-optional beach since the early 1960’s. “The sheriff deputies used to come down on weekends and praise us for keeping the riff-raff off the beach and for keeping the area cleaner than the texiled beach to the south,” said Marc Welter.

On hot summer weekends, often as many as a thousand nudists would congregate at Bates to play volleyball and have a barbeque. Welter said the neighbors from the gated Rincon Point housing tract nearby used to walk down the beach with their dogs and wave and sometimes join in.

“We all got along just fine for years,” said Robinson, “It was a very small – but very vocal – group of locals who simply preferred to have the beach for their own use, and they started complaining to the sheriff.” As reported in last month’s newsletter, Marc and Sonya visited the Carpenteria Sheriff Substation in May to check on the legal implications for re-establishing the nude beach.

“Lt. Farthingham told us he was obligated to respond any time someone files a complaint so we had no choice but to come down and start issuing tickets,” said Sonya.

“During the time when the naturists were on the beach, I always felt safe,” said Sonya. “Any problems of drunkenness, theft, and drug use were almost non-existent. We always policed the beach ourselves and inappropriate behavior was not tolerated.”

Ironically, since the nudists left, that stretch of Bates beach is hardly every used by anyone. One can visit there in the middle of summer and hardly find a soul, except for a few of the neighbors walking their dogs. Marc added, “The lieutenant told us there had been a large increase in drug activity and arrests for sexual misconduct on that beach since we left. I find it ironic that those who wanted us gone got what they asked for, but now the beach is not even safe enough for them to use.”

Two weeks ago, The Nude Beach Alliance launched a new web site at www.ournudebeach.com in the hope of educating the community and the media to the benefits of having a nude beach in the area. “It’s good for local business, it’s good for crime prevention, and the sun and exercise are good for your health too. Who could object to that?”

Apparently, not many.

To see how the community feels about welcoming the nude group back, Sonya, Marc and about a dozen others visited the annual Solstice Festival in downtown Santa Barbara last weekend.

The “Do-Dah”-like parade annually draws about 100,000 people along State Street. Afterwards, there is also a large park with rows of vendors selling food, crafts, and souvenir items. The NBA group came wearing their “We Want Our Nude Beaches Back!” T-shirts just to see the reaction from others in the crowd.

“We were pleasantly surprised how many people came up to us expressing their support for the idea,” said Dan Cruz, another member of the group. “We didn’t have any literature to handout or anything, but people seemed excited over the idea of getting the beach again.”

“We even sold about a dozen T-shirts!” added Marc. The next step for the group is to extend its visibility into Carpenteria and Santa Barbara among the merchants and restaurants there.

“People need to see we are just regular people, living all around them, and that there are a lot of us around that can make an economic impact on their community.

Marc estimates the NBA has a mailing list of about 75 people living in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. “We’ll spend this summer getting visible,” said Sonya. “If the locals want us back then we’ll talk about taking the next step.”

LOCAL CARPENTERIA PAPER GIVES OUR NUDE BEACH GROUP SOME COVERAGE

The Coastal View, a weekly tabloid newspaper in Carpenteria, featured a full-page article about our efforts to return clothing-optional status to Bates Beach in its June 29-July 5 edition. Under the headline, “No Nudity is No Joke to Naturist Group” the story quotes SCNA President Gary Mussell about the benefits to the local community of re-establishing the nude beach. The story also quotes Naturist Action Committee member Allen Baylis about the legal issues involved. Staff writer Paul Sisolak also interviewed Santa Barbara County Sheriff Lieutenant Darin Fotheringham about the complaints from nearby residents about alleged lewd conduct which the beach attracted in the past. Mussell replied that crime on the beach had gotten worse since the nudists left because there was nobody there to self-police the beach.

The article said that 75 local nudists had formed the Nude Beach Alliance of Santa Barbara County. Nude beach supporters are spending this summer discussing the beach with local residents to see if there is an interest in bringing back the beach. So far, the article reported, the reaction has been positive. Over the next couple of weeks the newspaper printed a few follow-up letters to the editor on the subject, all of which were in support of bringing back the nude beach.

To read the entire Coastal View article, visit the newspaper website at www.coastalview.com and use the “Search” feature to find “Nude beach.”

Affiliated with the Southern California Naturist Association (SCNA) 23679 Calabasas Rd #160 Calabasas CA 91302-1502 (818) 225-2273