Photo by Bryan Archbold
Photo: A group has formed with plans to approach legislators about amending local anti-nudity ordinances at Bates Beach, above, and Finney Beach in Summerland.

Organization lobbies for clothing optional laws in Carpinteria and Summerland
Select members of a nudist action group seeking the restoration of clothing optional areas at two local beaches are prepared to give government officials a “nude awakening.”

Tied to the nationally-affiliated Naturist Action Committee (NAC) and the Southern California Naturist Association (SCNA), they have formed a sub-group with plans to approach legislators about amending local anti-nudity ordinances at Bates Beach and Finney Beach in Summerland.

The Nude Beach Alliance is comprised of 75 naturists from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Allen Baylis, an attorney and member of the NAC Board of Directors, said naturism, or the practice of nudism, particularly on beaches, is a misconstrued and misunderstood activity.

“We feel nude or clothing optional recreation is a valid recreation and should be enjoyed as so,” he said. “People who believe it’s immoral to be without clothes have created these problems for us. This is an issue for them.”

Baylis believes the main issue at hand is that many beachfront residents confused public nudity with public sexual behavior, complained, and laws prohibiting the practice were suggested and approved.

“It’s all a matter of context, that anything that invokes nudity is sexual, and that’s just not so,” noted Baylis.

On the books, a few Santa Barbara County ordinances passed by the board of supervisors disallow nudity in all county recreational areas, including beaches and parks, according to sheriff’s lieutenant Darin Fotheringham.

“Yes, there’s a section of the public who enjoy nudity. For them, they’re a small portion of the community,” noted Fotheringham. “The intent of these laws is for the majority of the public.”

According to Fotheringham, existing anti-nudity mandates are important, not because nudists practice sexual acts in public, but because some people find sexual gratification by flocking to nude beaches, observing naturists, and committing lewd and lascivious acts.

“What is drawn to the nudity is an element of perverts,” said the lieutenant. “It draws another crowd because they’re no naturalists, but they go to gawk.”

Many offenses to anti-nudity laws, generally considered a citable infraction for the sheriff’s department, are committed unintentionally, said Fotheringham, often by vacationing tourists from Europe, where nudity is a more accepted practice.

“Obviously, our standards to what is accessible or offensive to the public are a different standard than to another country,” Fotheringham said. “Ignorance is not a defense under California law.”

“Nudists are a very unique kind of environmentalist” that keep beaches clean and quiet while embracing nudity as a natural state of being, said Gary Mussel, president of the Southern California Naturist Association in Calabasas.

According to Mussel, since nudity has been restricted, local beaches are now underutilized and have deteriorated to include large quantities of litter left behind from the clothed that naturists once helped clean up and maintain.

“The crime goes down, the drugs go down and the beaches are cleaner” when beaches are nude friendly, said Mussel.

Mussel added that most Southern California naturists must travel to the nude-friendly Blacks Beach in San Diego and San Onofre Beach in the meantime.

Until then, the Nude Beach Alliance, with its Web site, ournudebeach.com, has started its campaign to change the county’s mind on its laws.

Mussel said last Saturday a dozen alliance members appeared at the Solstice Parade in downtown Santa Barbara to hand out paraphernalia, literature and t-shirts proclaiming “We want our nude beaches back.”

Mussel was surprised at the large amount of support they received, with one or two negative responses out of 35 in the uninhibited surroundings of the annual event.

“I expected a lot more negativity, or certainly a mixed reaction,” said Mussel. “It was a lot more positive than I thought.”

The group, ever mindful that 2006 is an election year, according to Mussel, will make the slow crawl, clothed, to officials on the city and county level. A county board of supervisors ruling will require a three-vote majority to enact new laws.

Mussel said the alliance also has considered pursuing a county exemption from Carpinteria City Council members that could improve nudists’ chances of returning to Bates Beach.

“This isn’t a bunch of crazies who are trying to seize the beach back,” explained Mussel. We’re going to do it legally.

“We want to show that we’re part of the community and we’re just like them. We’re not outsiders,” he continued. “We just want to see if the Carpinteria community would welcome us back.”