Nude Swimming at the Y

[Elvis]

While "camping out" at the Y with Boy Scouts we had to swim nude with two interesting scout leaders who didn't even have children. Not sure that would be allowed today. The Syracuse NY Y had an interesting setup with the lockers surrounding the free weight area in one large open room. Showers were an open area. Pool was in the men's locker room where all the swimming was done naked. They eventually built on a new co-ed pool and last time I was there the one in the men's are was drained.

 

anyone want to sneak in, fill it up and go for a swim?

[+ poolboy48220]

Not so much nude swimming, but a local gym chain had a layout where there was a co-ed pool, steamroom, and sauna, but there were also saunas & steamrooms inside the mens locker rooms. The steamroom inside the locker room was so notorious for guys fooling around in it that they finally closed it and used it to store mops.

[Mount N Do]

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.

So blow drying ones ass and balls is not common? OMG, I'm shamed. I do it all the time. Not at the gym tho...

[BasketBaller]

Somewhat analogous to this discussion is the fact that until very recently, wrestlers weighed in before matches in the nude. High school wrestling only ended this practice in 2010! It was the rise of cell phone cameras that made the practice change. Lots of videos online with officials and refs all clothed as they watch naked athletes get weighed. The rationales were the need to make weight and the requirement that wrestlers be inspected for skin diseases. I'm not sure whether college athletes still do it, but I doubt it.

 

http://notdbd.tumblr.com/post/112000247637/college-wrestlers-weigh-in-and-prepare-for-the-big

[Rudynate]

I don't know about chlorine levels and monitoring say, 100 years ago or more when traditions were established. The swimming-hole tradition has occurred to me as well.

 

They used to drain and replace the water in school and college and Y pools as often as once a week to keep the water as clean and safe as possible. From what I've read, the idea was to get as much dirt, bacteria, fecal matter, and sweat off of the guys as possible (by having them shower) to keep the water as clean as long as possible. There are a number of reports of the showering/washing being monitored by coaches or older students. And before modern filtration systems and artificial fabrics, the swimsuits themselves were hard to keep clean, thus seen as a public health risk, and many kids and families couldn't afford them when they were relatively new on the market. Plus the suits (I think the first ones were wool) were uncomfortable and, supposedly, the fibers could clog the drains.

 

There are suits now that help people swim faster than if they were naked; the long body suits were even banned. Now competitive swimmers wear Speedos that are as small as possible and are made of material designed to reduce drag. It's pretty easy for me to imagine that in an era in which same-sex nudity was seen as non-sexual, swim suits, of bulky material and/or expensive, just seemed to be superfluous.

 

As far as what girls wore, back before Title IX, girls and women didn't have access to as many athletic opportunities as men. Swimsuits were introduced for girls, or at least were used more often, before they were for guys, but my sense is there were many fewer swimming opportunities for girls for quite a while--just as football has remained a men's sport. There are a number of accounts of men swimming nude in their swim classes while girls were given swim suits they found uncomfortable.

 

Quite amazing to me, there are photos of actual public swim meets, with coed spectators, with guys swimming naked.

 

I'm sure some doctoral candidate in sociology is writing a dissertation on this if one hasn't been written already!

 

In the 70's, the swimming pool at the Golden Gate YMCA was filled with unheated water from the San Francisco Bay. It was freezing cold and sort of cloudy green. I have mentioned this to a few people who have lived here since that time, and nobody seems to remember it. I don't know how you could forget it.

[BasketBaller]

The topic has been aired again.

 

https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-city/baring-it-all-why-boys-swam-naked-in-chicago-schools/c9a3a9e2-6ae3-404b-80e5-0c4bf4d5a0be

 

Interesting that this article quotes several men who talk about how much they hated it.

[Rod Hagen]

Here's a Tumblr with swimming as it used to be. It's amazing how comfortable the women competitors are with the nude male teammates:

 

https://boysswimnude.tumblr.com

[+ sniper]

I wonder too if AIDS wasn't part of the shift? the fact is there are way more bi guys than gay guys, and hearing the stories from a lot of you older guys(i'm 46), it seems like WAY more guys dabbled during their adolescence than during mine. I remember realizing I was gay in 4th grade and looking forward to HS sports and stuff and the chance to be naked with guys and then AIDS hit and at first it wasn't crystal clear what was safe to do and not, and I think parents who were fearful for their kids kind of shut down a lot of situations that had any potential to turn sexual whereas previously they would have just said "eh it's just a phase, at least he can't knock someone up this way." This also came at the same time as a lot of child sex abuse scandals. But I went to HS from 1985-1989, was on track all four years, had to take four years of PE, and in all that time I remember exactly four boys who used the shower - one time each.

It was several things all coming together, plus the rise of smaller families and kids who never shared a bedroom.

[+ freecahill1965]

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?

Yes, it was the 70's for me though.

[+ Funguy]

In college in 1966 as freshmen we had to take a semester of PE which included 6 weeks of swimming. It was nude - oodles of college guys hanging. Some of it was "rescue" swimming where we had to "save" our partner. Popped one a few times tho careful to hide it in the water!

[+ poolboy48220]

some new neighbors are from Germany and they've mentioned in passing that it still seems to be unremarkable to be naked at public pools there. I haven't wanted to appear TOO salacious so I did not quiz them about it :-)

[+ Autumnal]

Like Funguy I took required PE as a freshman in '68. Bathing suits were not allowed in the pool - except on co-ed night when they were required - go figure! Have always loved swimming naked but wasn't excited about having to jump off the 3 meter platform naked - made sure both hands were tightly cupping the goods before hitting the water:(

[BasketBaller]

I think this is in Belgium, and it appears to be more recent than the end of nude swimming in most of the US.

 

http://www.myvidster.com/video/96994634/Swimming_Races

[+ sniper]

Well don't some European countries still do the coed naked sauna thing?

[+ poolboy48220]

The local paper ran an article on our high school swim team and included a picture of one of the better-looking guys. He said he got a call after the article came out, some guy telling him how good looking he was & what did he do if he got a boner in his speedo. He thought it was pretty funny.

[BasketBaller]

I swam this morning and as I was cooling down I took a look around. It was just as well no one was naked, I'm afraid, it would not have been a pretty sight.

[+ sniper]

The local paper ran an article on our high school swim team and included a picture of one of the better-looking guys. He said he got a call after the article came out, some guy telling him how good looking he was & what did he do if he got a boner in his speedo. He thought it was pretty funny.

Yes, but that's an atypical reaction. It's creeper behavior like this combined with the fabricated childnapping hysteria of the 80s that led to a generation of never-nudes.

[kewtex]

Yes, but that's an atypical reaction. It's creeper behavior like this combined with the fabricated childnapping hysteria of the 80s that led to a generation of never-nudes.