Real Naturist of the Year 2015: Vritomartis Naturist Resort, Crete

I've only been to the Greek island of Crete once in my life, decades ago, probably four of them. That means you understand I have never been to the Vritomartis Naturist Resort on that island.
Yet, I must admire them for their pluck and courage. They're hyperactive on the Internet, with a blog, on Facebook, on Twitter.
They have a photography contest. They organize nude hiking expeditions in the mountains. They organize nude cruises in the Mediterranean off Crete. They welcome nude weddings.
As I said, I have never been there, but even I'm ever again in the neighborhood, their online activities and the excellent pictures on their website are enough to draw me in.
It must be quite a feat to have started a naturist resort on the south coast of Crete, the side of the island furthest away from the airports and from the crowds of the north coast. When I visited Crete decades ago, I never even saw the south coast, and I didn't venture further east than Agios Nikolaos.
My Real Naturist of the Year award is just a title. It doesn't include any financial rewards, there is no fancy piece of art that gets handed out and there is no ceremony. At the end of the year, I just name somebody or something, a resort, a person, an association, that has been active in the spread of real, true naturism.
Having been active this year on Facebook, I came to the conclusion that the Vritomartis Naturist Resort, despite or maybe because of its apparently isolated location, is one of the most active resorts, not just on behalf of itself, but also on behalf of naturism in general. That's why it deserves to be named the Real Naturist of the Year 2015.
www.vritomartis.com

Skinny Dipping

British newspaper The Daily Telegraph had a list of the 10 best places to go skinny dipping yesterday. Each one illustrated by one picture.
If you judged the places by the pictures, then some of them I would definitely stay away from. Any of them having ice in the same place as a nude swimmer for example. I am much too afraid of the cold to even consider taking off my clothes in such a polar environment.
Then there is Paradise and Super Paradise Beach on the Greek island of Mykonos. Famous the world over for its nude beach. But that is just the problem. When you achieve that kind of fame, the emphasis changes from enjoying nude sunbathing to viewing nude sunbathing. In other words, you get more and more gawkers and voyeurs, and the real naturists start leaving in droves. The picture on the site showed a very crowded beach with more men in shorts than naked people. That's always the sign of a problem.
So I would go for the opposite. The first picture is the most beautiful. A quiet beach on the Spanish Balearic island of Formentera, no crowds, just real naturists. Exactly my kind of place. Or maybe just add to that a naturist hotel where I can sit on the balcony naked and write on my laptop at the same time. Gorgeous. I want to start packing my bags right now.
The 10 best spots to go skinny dipping are on view at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/6645265/Top-ten-places-to-go-skinny-dipping.html

Italy 2009

The latest edition of the Italian naturist magazine Info Naturista www.infonaturista.org, the official publication of the Italian Naturist Federation www.fenait.org tumbled into my mailbox again recently.
The opening editorial seems to do away with the classic differentiation between naturists and nudists, where the former are often environmentalists, vegetarians, peace activists, followers of natural medicine opposed to consumerism and alcohol, and the latter are just people who take their clothes off but keep all their other vices intact.
The difference doesn't matter, the editorial says, as long as all followers respect their bodies, each other, and the environment. The main expression of naturism is nudism, the article says.
The latest issue of the magazine has general writings of a philosophical nature as well as straightforward holiday reports - such as one bilingual English-Italian report about the Vritomartis resort on the less-frequent southern coast of Crete. The naturist hotel has no fewer than six - 6! - beaches in the neighborhood where naturism is the norm. You can find more information at www.vritomartis.gr, even though that part of the world will be mostly considered too remote for us residents of Asia. Pont Rouge in the Canadian province of Quebec might be a more likely destination.
The magazine concludes with the reviews of the activities of Italy's regional naturist organizations, including the everlasting campaign to keep the Lido di Dante beach near the historic town of Ravenna in nudist hands. There is also an extensive review of the naturist resort Le Betulle near Turin, which is run by the head of Italian naturism himself, Gianfranco Ribolzi.
If only Asia could have such naturist resorts and beaches, and such naturist magazines.

Naturists of the Year 2008?

Time Magazine just published its new issue, with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on the cover as its Person of the Year.

That reminds me that it's soon time to announce my own choices for Naturist of the Year for the past year, 2008.

Last year, I picked Cuban-American actress Eva Mendes as the Celebrity Naturist of the Year, mainly because of her work on the poster for animal action group PETA and for her known liking for gardening in the nude.

Mark and Samantha Taylor from the United Kingdom were my Real Naturists of the Year 2007, because they realized their dream by leaving behind a comfortable existence in their own country to go and start up a naturist resort on a small Greek island. Sounds like paradise to any naturist, but it must have been hard work.

Over the next few weeks I will be evaluating the likely candidates for this year's "awards," which as you know are merely the honor of being mentioned on this web site. There is no money attached, no work of art, no medal. But if it can start a movement, help spread the word of naturism around the Internet and around the world, why not.