Real Naturist of the Year: Festival Nudista Zipolite

Image courtesy of organizers Festival Nudista Zipolite 2020.

Living in Taiwan, I know how difficult to create a naturist movement out of nothing. When you mention naturism to someone, a majority of people might not understand what it is, while the rest looks at you in revulsion because they know what it is either.
That's why I admire people who can stomp a naturist movement out of nothing and still be successful at it. The prime example of such is the Naturist Association of Thailand, a previous winner of my Real Naturist of the Year award, which in a relatively short time went from nowhere to being the largest naturist group in Asia, with several hotels and resorts launching to address the need for more naturism.
I now turn my attention away from Asia and to another part of the world that maybe, has not been known for large-scale naturism: Latin America. I am happy to say that there too, things are changing, in a positive way.
Mexico has had one official naturist beach for 3 years now: Zipolite, in the well-known state of Oaxaca on the country's west coast. It's not as popular or developed as the household names of Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta or Cancun, which might make it more difficult to reach and less easy to book hotel rooms as they fill up faster.
But Zipolite is now more than just a beach. To add to its naturist image, people have organized a full-blown annual festival which takes over the town in late January - early February. According to the media, the participants and visitors to the event have grown from a couple of hundred to several thousand, making it one of the largest nude and naturist events in the world.
What I personally approve it, is that the festival is not locked away behind the gates and walls of a private naturist resort, which of course has its own positives and negatives. The positive is that naturist values can be seen by everyone, and that outsiders who might have been hesitant before could be converted to non-sexual social nudity - naturism - by witnessing the event. The only potential negative I can see is of course that it draws people not interested in wholesome nudity, but that's why the festival is well-guarded and policed.
Because of the role the event plays in advocating naturism in Mexico, Latin America and beyond, this blog names the Festival Nudista Zipolite the winner of the Real Naturist of the Year Award for 2019.
The event has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1464381013859578/
If you're interested in the 2020 edition, from January 31 to February 3, another Real Naturist of the Year Award winner, the duo Naked Wanderings, will attend and report about the event. You can find their advice and comments for Zipolite at https://www.nakedwanderings.com/2019/12/16/visiting-zipolite-nudist-festival/
There are also several hotels operating on at least a clothing-optional basis in the area, such as the Hotel Nude: https://nudexplorer.com/?select=&lp_s_loc=Zipolite&lp_s_tag=&lp_s_cat=&s=home&post_type=listing

On the day hundreds, or even thousands, of people are preparing to cycle through the streets of major cities, including London, naked for the World Naked Bike Ride, we also want to throw a light on a development in the world of naturism.
Our Real Naturists of the Year 2017, Belgian couple Nick and Lins, are already famous for their blog Naked Wanderings, relating their naturist trips around the world, which recently also hit Thailand.
While moving around California and Mexico, they still found time to launch a new initiative: NUDE, or the Nudist's Ultimate Destination Explorer.
Both owners of naturist 'areas' - could be hotels, B&Bs, campgrounds, anything that once used to be known by the oddly historical term of 'colonies' - and their visitors can register and offer suggestions, descriptions, comments on one website - https://nudexplorer.com.
The aim looks like being a kind of online version of world naturism guides - a list of naturist accomodations and areas around the world including relevant details, about location and transportation, whether "clothing optional" is allowed, and other useful information for a potential visitor.
In my personal experience, there are always surprises: at some naturist resorts, the restaurant is textile - which means you have to go back to your room and dress or undress before and after each meal - in my humble opinion, an annoying waste of time. Some naturist hotels also allow visitors from outside to live as a naturist during the day for a fee, which is useful if say, you already have your own place in the neighborhood but no official naturist beaches, which can happen in places like Thailand.
All in all, any initiative like NUDE deserves our encouragement.
If you are cycling today in one of the many World Naked Bike Rides, good luck to you, but you can also think one step further - and plan a total nakation, a weekend, or a week, or two, when you don't have to be concerned about wearing clothes at all.

The Real Naturists of the Year 2014: Malaysia Nude Games

Previous choices as my Real Naturist of the Year were mostly people living in countries where naturism might not be generally known and prevalent, but at least they were free to promote naturism, to take part in naturist activities, or to run naturist resorts.
This year, the situation was different. Several naturists in Malaysia were questioned, detained, fined and even sentenced to prison for organizing a nude sports event which nobody even saw until it was distributed on the Internet.
The Malaysia Nude Games took part on the tourist island of Penang on Malaysia's northwest coast during the first half of the year. I saw the video of the event - which later circulated online and caused the legal problems - in Thailand in early June.
As could be expected, the Nude Games were just that: a series of innocent beach games, on a much smaller and more modest scale than naturist athletic events taking part every summer in parts of Europe.
The galling thing about all the legal fuss is that nobody actually witnessed the Nude Games and complained about it to the authorities as they happened. The only complaints were based on the video which was placed online later. In other words, nobody outside naturist circles actually knew of the event before or when it happened, so there was no reason for anybody to be offended.
While the Nude Games were at the time seen by the naturist community as a breakthrough for naturism in East Asia, where most countries still ban the practice, the treatment given to organizers and participants will scare off future naturist events in Malaysia, even if they are being held behind closed doors.
For their bravery, and as a sign of support for naturists fighting against persecution, we named the organizers and participants in the Malaysia Nude Games as the Real Naturists of the Year 2014.
You will find an account of the event on this Malaysian blog http://psantubong1.blogspot.tw/2014/08/malaysia-nude-sports-games-2014.html
and a media report at
http://hype.my/newsdesk/nsfw-malaysia-nude-sports-games-2014/
The video of the event seems to have been taken down.
As a sign of sympathy and support, naturists in San Francisco staged their own Nude Games last October: http://www.mynakedtruth.tv/2014/09/we-need-your-donations-malaysia-nude-beach-games-in-san-francisco-october-4-2014/

Real Naturist of the Year 2012: Philippe

The Real Naturist of the Year Award celebrates a person who is both a true naturist and has done something outstanding to promote the cause of naturism over the past year.
The award for 2012 goes to Philippe, the first naturist and man to appear full-frontally nude on evening television in Belgium.
The show 'Manneke Paul' on Dutch-language TV channel VTM wanted to report about plans to open a 'naturist forest' in Belgium's coastal province, but had to delay because it just couldn't find people to show living the naturist lifestyle. That's where Philippe came in. He volunteered and the TV show could go ahead.
Philippe is a 52-year-old teacher who teaches Dutch for foreign-language pupils at an elementary school in the city of Ghent.
The courage of people like Philippe does more for the cause of naturism than anything else: show ordinary people like you and me enjoying naturism for what it is, and you will convince people that non-sexual public nudity is not a sin, it's the way we were intended to live.
You can find the original Dutch-language report about Philippe at the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws at http://bit.ly/TjbApL