The Nudestock Report!

One word just about covers it. Wow.

I've never been to any kind of nudist place of any kind before, so I didn't quite know what to expect. I seldom wear clothes at home, but that's home--How would I feel in a nudist club?

I read all the rules online at their website (see my links section) so I knew not to take my camera. I wouldn't have taken any person's picture, but I really would have liked to take pictures of overall things. I took a big blanket, pillow, a cooler full of beer, water, and food, and of course, sunscreen. The weather forecast for the area was mid to upper 80's for the event.

The road is a twisty, rutted dirt road that winds upward from the main road for a few miles. I rounded the last curve and there it was in it's obvious glory. An open gate manned by an older gentleman wearing glasses, brown socks, and shoes. Wait a minute--Brown socks!? He was directing visitors to park alongside the road just inside the gate and then to the little welcome office to get checked in. (Funny thing--I never saw another person wearing socks... Maybe that was his individualism.) Anyway, I had to fill out a basic form with the usual personal information, and then hand that to the lady along with my photo id so she could check the national database for sex offenders and other serious convictions. The couple just ahead of me was comprised of a female regular member and a male first timer. The visitor's office/gate area was pretty much the last place I saw anyone dressed.

After I got back out and into my car, a guy (there were lots of staff members helping) walked in front of me and led me a short distance to a parking spot. They were expecting a big crowd and were parking people very carefully. I arrived there at about 10:30, with the first music act scheduled to start at 11:00, so I was plenty early enough to get in with no troubles. (In retrospect, the whole mood of the place was such that I doubt if there were ever any troubles.) When I got parked, I instantly undressed. I was slightly nervous, but it was waning more and more with every second I was there. I gathered my stuff and walked down to the lawn sunning area where the bandstand was set up at the North (I think it was North) end.

Of course, you don't stare, but as a first timer, you can't help but drink it all in. There were ugly people, beautiful people and everything in between. I saw the ages range from toddlers all the way up through the 80's or so. There were bellies, sagging parts, cellulite, and every conceivable thing you can think of that makes us all unique. There were tattoos, nipple jewelry, waist chains, and an occasional person with a thin scarf or similar tied around their waist. There were people with no pubic hair, too much pubic hair, gray pubic hair... You name it. It was so great. I was there for hardly any time at all when I basically felt like I had been there my whole life. I felt like I had arrived. After a while, you actually find yourself looking up at someone's face when they walk by. It's a weird thing to describe. I loved it!

They have a big, standard-sized rectangular swimming pool with the standard graduating depths and a water slide at the middle depth, 2 large hot tubs, and a huge (way bigger than the standard one) shallow pool for floating or kids' water play. The sun area is sloped and grassy, and is plenty big enough for a lot of people to use at any one time without even coming close to crowding. The best way to take a look at their facilities is to check out the 3 pages of pictures they have HERE.

The music was great, and that just helped to make my day. After all, that was half the reason I went in the first place! (Maybe not exactly half...)

The first band, Big Woody and the Clam Diggers, was the sort of band you would find playing in a local bar. Pretty good stuff, all covers from songs we all know and love. The gal that sang had quite a set of pipes on her... She did a pretty good Janis Joplin. Both she and the bass player were nude during their whole set.

The second was a one-man show that is a national recording artist who is big on the jazz scene--Michael Powers. He was phenomenal. I'm pretty sure he has a band with him at big concerts, but for this one he used all sorts of cool foot-operated recorders and electronic things to do his back up sounds and tracks. Like for example, he would start the bass and drum beat going into his electronic recorder, then switch to his electronic guitar while the bass and drums continued. He made that thing do saxophones, trumpets... You name it. Very, very talented man and great jazz. At one point he made some comment about starting a conga line, and before you know it, all the nude dancers in front were in a long snaking line, and all of a sudden people from everywhere started running up there to join in the line. As it started snaking all through the crowd's blankets on the lawn, I got "pulled up" off mine to join in. By the time it was at its fullest, I'd say there were a hundred people in it, all nude. Picture that!

I didn't know what to expect when Nick Vigarino came out as I had never heard of him before. I was blown away. This guy played guitar like I had never heard before. Rock, blues, finger picking, slide... It was all there and was fantastic. For his last song, he came out into the front of the stage area into the middle of the dancers while he was playing (obviously he was on wireless.) He started using objects people had as a guitar slide on the song he was playing while his band continued onstage. (By the way, he was fully nude at the time too.) He used a bottle of beer, a hula hoop, and even a clam shovel (a prop from the first band). He was really great. I understand that he plays there every year which clinches my going back next year for sure.

The last act was The Mary McPage Band. Very good vocalist, doing rocking bluesy singing similar to Melissa Etheridge, Janis, and so many others. The band was no slouch either--The guitarist was fantastic. They also had a nude bass player.

By the time the music stopped at 6pm, I had a minor (fortunately!) sunburn on my left waist area from having faced the bandstand too long without rotating around. I had run out of beer a couple hours earlier too, so that needed a slight adjustment for next time. I had been in the pool a few times, noticing right off the bat how cool it was to hoist myself up out of the water and not have to tug a swimsuit back up. I bought myself a Nudestock 2006 t-shirt to flaunt in public places too. It's a pretty nice design. I wandered around a lot, looking at things that were for sale at one of the vendors that were there. I believe there were only 5 vendors. There was also a guy there that was doing hotdogs and burgers from some place in Tacoma I believe. Obviously they weren't free. When I left there and walked by on the way to my car, all of the grills (there are quite a few) were covered with freshly laid out THICK steaks. Wow.

They made an announcement at the end that they had a little over 600 people there, and that 100 of them were first-timers. That's quite a turnout.

Let me tell you, it was a sad, sad thing having to put clothes back on to leave, but I will be going back.