Nude Swimming at the Y

[Marlfox]

I was browsing Tumblr and came across this page:

 

http://stillrowing7-swimming.tumblr.com/

 

Apparently in parts of the US it was normal for boys and men to swim and compete nude up until the 1960's. The photo's on this site, which appear to be clipped from newspapers are amazing. I can't imagine such a thing to exist today.

 

Did any of the forum members experience this?

[Kenny]

I did. It was a special "closed hour" in the evening, as I recall. I have no idea what the motivation was, but it was...educational.

[Marlfox]

Sounds interesting Kenny. How old were you?

[BaronArtz]

Nude swimming was practiced at the prestigious New York Athletic Club well into the 198Os. On certain times of the week, nude workouts were scheduled at the club's gym. I found that a bit impractical - do you really want to run naked on a treadmill? All of this was abolished when the club became co-ed.

 

Nude swimming is still the norm at the all-male Raquet Club on Park Ave, and certain nights at the Union Club and the University Club in NYC.

 

I believe the motivation was to evoke Greek and Roman antiquity ...

[TruHart1]

What I remember especially back at my swim lessons at the Y was being frustrated that the older boys who had begun puberty and grown pubes got to wear jockstraps while I had to be completely naked and vulnerable. I must have been about 8 or 9 years old! I was still so clueless sexually that I told my mom that I thought everybody should have to be equally nude if they were going to learn to swim and how unfair I thought it was!

 

I can't remember if she dropped me off and picked me up after or if there was a women's pool in a different area and she went there, since I do remember that she was definitely not allowed at the male swim lessons. I did learn how to swim well, though, and it was always a great highlight of my summer to go to our local country club pool 3, 4, or 5 days a week and run in and out of the locker room every 20 minutes or so to check out the older guys changing in and out of their swim wear so I could stare at the cock banquet available in the changing areas!!! I mean, the older guys had such BIG dicks compared to mine back then! :)

 

TruHart1

[+ bigjoey]

In the 1950's in Boy Scouts, we swam nude. In high school, we had swimming about once every two weeks and it was in the nude. At Penn, in the early 60's there was nude swimming at the men's gym (later, Gimball opened with a co-ed pool).

[BasketBaller]

When I was in college the old gym pool had gender-specific hours a few days a week in which it was understood people would swim nude. I never went then and now I regret it! But I did use the sauna, and back then no one even remotely covered up. You brought a towel to sit on, but no one ever wrapped it around themselves.

[gallahadesquire]

For two years in high school, we swam naked. Public school, too. It had different pools for the boys and the girls.

[+ Charlie]

In the 1950's in Boy Scouts, we swam nude. In high school, we had swimming about once every two weeks and it was in the nude. At Penn, in the early 60's there was nude swimming at the men's gym (later, Gimball opened with a co-ed pool).

Damn! I was at Penn in the early 60s, and no one ever told me about that.

[+ Just Sayin]

I graduated from high school in 1966, and our p.e. swimming classes were in the nude; seemed normal then!

[klifhangar]

That's funny. Public pools, or even the thought of them, give me a rager now just remembering...

[+ Gar1eth]

I've mentioned this several times in various threads. My Uncle who will be 90 in August (born in 1926) said they routinely swam naked at the Y when he was growing up except on Family Night. I asked him why. He said they were all guys-why not.

 

I was browsing Tumblr and came across this page:

 

http://stillrowing7-swimming.tumblr.com/

 

Apparently in parts of the US it was normal for boys and men to swim and compete nude up until the 1960's. The photo's on this site, which appear to be clipped from newspapers are amazing. I can't imagine such a thing to exist today.

 

Did any of the forum members experience this?

 

In a recent thread someone mentioned that they swam nude in high school in the early to mid '70s.

 

Gman

[mike carey]

This whole thread about naked swimming surprises me greatly, in part because I have never heard of it happening here and also in part because my view has always been that Puritan-settled America seems a much more buttoned down society than ours. I guess the context is different, there it all seems to be organised same-sex swimming in private pools (or at least pools where the privacy of participants can be guaranteed). Swimming lessons here start at public pools, almost all open air, and are mixed sex. Typically they are not organised by schools or organisations like the YMCA. I suspect swimming culture here is more like California than the North East, where children start going to the pool or the beach as toddlers so by the time they get to school, wearing swimmers [bathers in some states in Australia and swimsuits for you] is normalised.

[Kenny]

Sounds interesting Kenny. How old were you?

6th-9th grade. Then I got lifeguard certified and swam mostly at outdoor pools in the summer.

[Kenny]

my view has always been that Puritan-settled America seems a much more buttoned down society than ours

And you are right. Think of naked swimming indoors at the Y during a restricted hour as sort of like being in the closet.

[Lankypeters]

When I was at Penn State in the early 60's and signing up for phys. ed. classes, I was told that all swimming classes were in the nude. This policy appears to have been the case at other colleges, as some of the above comments suggest and as I've hear from others. The word at PSU was, "Don' t take swimming. All the fairies sign up for it." I still don't know the reasons behind this policy. One explanation I heard was that the policy existed for sanitary reasons. This suggestions makes no sense. Someone else said that nude swimming was "the Greek ideal." Somehow, I don't think Greek ideals prevailed in the phys. ed. department at Penn State.

[+ Gar1eth]

This whole thread about naked swimming surprises me greatly, in part because I have never heard of it happening here and also in part because my view has always been that Puritan-settled America seems a much more buttoned down society than ours. I guess the context is different, there it all seems to be organised same-sex swimming in private pools (or at least pools where the privacy of participants can be guaranteed). Swimming lessons here start at public pools, almost all open air, and are mixed sex. Typically they are not organised by schools or organisations like the YMCA. I suspect swimming culture here is more like California than the North East, where children start going to the pool or the beach as toddlers so by the time they get to school, wearing swimmers [bathers in some states in Australia and swimsuits for you] is normalised.

 

I think there was a NYT article fairly recently on locker rooms/changing areas at (straight) NY athletic clubs. The article was about how the millennials wanted more privacy in the locker rooms. They didn't like the large changing areas where they could see all the naked guys. I think I've also heard comedians talk about how older patrons don't mind walking around nude to visit with others or to shave while younger guys are much more body shy.

 

Gman

[Kenny]

When I was at Penn State in the early 60's and signing up for phys. ed. classes, I was told that all swimming classes were in the nude

Was Joe Paterno there then? Jerry Sandusky?

[+ WilliamM]

I think there was a NYT article fairly recently on locker rooms/changing areas at (straight) NY athletic clubs. The article was about how the millennials wanted more privacy in the locker rooms. They didn't like the large changing areas where they could see all the naked guys. I think I've also heard comedians talk about how older patrons don't mind walking around nude to visit with others or to shave while younger guys are much more body shy.

 

 

Yes, there used to be state of New Jersey beaches with locker rooms and showers for the public. Everyone showered naked (at least in the mens locker room).

 

Not anymore. I am not sure it's just body shy. Some older guys at the beach I mention stayed for a very long time near the shower, particularly on weekends when the place was crowded.

[+ WilliamM]

Was Joe Paterno there then? Jerry Sandusky

 

Yes for Paterno, not sure about Sandusky. But, Paterno did not become Head Coach until 1966, I believe he was an assistance coach before 1966.

 

I was a student at Penn State during the 1965 and 1966 football seasons.

[+ poolboy48220]

I just missed this window, going to high school in the mid-70's. To my regret...

[gallahadesquire]

I think there was a NYT article fairly recently on locker rooms/changing areas at (straight) NY athletic clubs. The article was about how the millennials wanted more privacy in the locker rooms. They didn't like the large changing areas where they could see all the naked guys. I think I've also heard comedians talk about how older patrons don't mind walking around nude to visit with others or to shave while younger guys are much more body shy.

 

Gman

 

I joined a gym two years ago. I was talking to my personal trainer about the locker room. "Wait 'til you see someone blow-drying their balls and ass with the hair dryer."

 

I thought, "That would never happen. That's too gross."

 

Then I saw it. Guy with his foot on the counter, hair drying in hand, blowing off his balls and asshole [perineum].

 

That was my something new every day moment.

 

About the millenials: There's a pile of younger kids (like high school age) who come to the gym. They don't' seem to mind changing in front of each other or in front of me. They are discreet and, if showered, will have a towel around their waist, but otherwise, they still get naked. Truth be told, it's only for the underwear changing time, but some remain shirtless while changing.

 

I'm here to report on the state of American youth, and it's very nice, indeed.

[BasketBaller]

At my gym and pool younger guys act like nervous Victorian ladies, reluctant to show their ankles. They either don't shower or do so very quickly, and some wrap towels around themselves just to change underwear. Guys my age shower and change fairly efficiently, modest but not neurotic about it. And older men act like it's a nudist camp, casually hanging out and walking around buck naked.

[+ Charlie]

When I was at Penn State in the early 60's and signing up for phys. ed. classes, I was told that all swimming classes were in the nude. This policy appears to have been the case at other colleges, as some of the above comments suggest and as I've hear from others. The word at PSU was, "Don' t take swimming. All the fairies sign up for it." I still don't know the reasons behind this policy. One explanation I heard was that the policy existed for sanitary reasons. This suggestions makes no sense. Someone else said that nude swimming was "the Greek ideal." Somehow, I don't think Greek ideals prevailed in the phys. ed. department at Penn State.

I went to an all-male college, where swimming was a required phys ed course, but I don't remember what we wore in the pool. I think I would remember if we were nude, but of course, by the time I got to college, I had had enough gay sex that I was pretty blase about seeing other naked men.

[+ bigjoey]

At my gym and pool younger guys act like nervous Victorian ladies, reluctant to show their ankles. They either don't shower or do so very quickly, and some wrap towels around themselves just to change underwear. Guys my age shower and change fairly efficiently, modest but not neurotic about it. And older men act like it's a nudist camp, casually hanging out and walking around buck naked.

 

You just described my gym!! I think it may have something to do with many of us "older" guys having been in the military and gotten use to the lack of privacy.