Before Speedos there was Skin

[Lap Counter]

I've posted before about my college requiring incoming freshman to pass a swimming test naked. Apparently, nude male swimming was required elsewhere, too.
Monica Eng reports:
(the audio vision is more complete than the transcript)

https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-c...5-0c4bf4d5a0be

Jumping off the starting blocks could hurt!

The invention of nylon Speedos made the whole thing unnecessary, but it was 20 years before nude swimming requirements disappeared from public schools thanks to Title IX.

[California Dolphin]

Yep, the idea behind speedo suits was to provide support for the male "anatomy" while minimizing skin coverage.

[Frog]

Well I would be OK to swim naked if it was possible (and if everybody was naked of course). I Know a public pool in France where you can swim naked, some days of the week in the evening. Perhaps one day I will give it a try. Like at the nudist beach you should have a great sensation of freedom..

[Minimalist75]

Originally Posted by Frog

Well I would be OK to swim naked if it was possible (and if everybody was naked of course). I Know a public pool in France where you can swim naked, some days of the week in the evening. Perhaps one day I will give it a try. Like at the nudist beach you should have a great sensation of freedom..

This summer I have only been to the nude beach.
Also by timing my swimming in my own pool so that no one was home except my wife and adult son, I have been swimming more often without a suit than with one.
If you have to wear a swimsuit, a speedo is the best option, but skin only is still better.

[Torchwatch]

Although my British Grammar School had an outdoor swimming pool swimming trunks or shorts were compulsory at all times and sunbathing in the area outside the pool was banned. There was a bus route going past the rear of the school and upper deck passengers could see in, so no nude swimming at any time. The changing area at the sides of the pool was also open to bus view so we all got changed with our shirts on, not removing them until our trunks were secure.

Other schools at the time had a policy of forcing boys who had forgotten their swimming trunks to swim naked. A great example is the school in Birmingham described by Jonathon Coe in the Rotter's Club

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rotters-Clu...e+rotters+club

The main character a 1970's schoolboy leaves his swimming kit in his father's car and knows that unless he can find swimming trunks before PE he will have to swim naked and his life will be destroyed.
At the last moment he prays to God, the wind blows a locker open revealing some pretty awful swimming trunks and he becomes a Christian.

Read the book, it's funny but also deeply shocking.

[Coach]

I went to high school during the final years of nude swimming in my district. From my Freshman to Junior year, boys were required to swim nude; they started allowing, but didn't require, swimsuits during my Senior year. The PE teachers never got in the pool and wore their regular PE uniforms during class. Our swim team coach swam nude during practice. Swimsuits were optional at swim meets when spectators were present. A few years after I graduated, they started requiring suits for boys.

I don't recall anyone ever complaining about the practice and swim classes were some of the most popular. The year they started allowing swimsuits, only the freshman showed up to swim class wearing them. Most of them were naked by the second or third class. At swim meets, about half the guys opted to swim nude. Some guys thought it helped them to swim faster.

Swimming nude was common, though rapidly disappearing, for men and boys at the time. The health club my family belonged to originally only allowed men, and nude swimming was required. It was coed when I was growing up, but nude swimming persisted. We'd go swimming once or twice a week, and my dad and I were always nude. Most of the men over 40 swam naked. It was a mix for those younger.

Nude swimming was common at people's homes too. We visited a few friends during the summer that had pools, and the men and boys always swam naked.

The school where I coach now is completely privately funded and, therefore, exempt from some regulations. It's a coed school, but swim classes are still separated by gender. They technically never took the nude swimming rules off the books. This was at the request of parents on the board who wanted to preserve the tradition. I was told by another teacher that it came up in a review at a meeting a few years back, but the parents' only protest was that it wasn't gender inclusive. They updated it to be gender neutral.

Generally speaking, students choose to wear swimsuits to swim class. New students often discover the rule when they forget their swimsuit. We don't provide backups, so they have the option to swim nude or lose credit for that day. In my experience, they always swim nude. Students familiar with the rule sometimes make a habit of "forgetting" their suits. A few of the seniors in my classes have dropped the pretense and simply swim nude.

[Schoolspeedo]

Originally Posted by Frog

Well I would be OK to swim naked if it was possible (and if everybody was naked of course). I Know a public pool in France where you can swim naked, some days of the week in the evening. Perhaps one day I will give it a try. Like at the nudist beach you should have a great sensation of freedom..

In Netherlands I've swum naked at a hotel pool where they had nightly nude sessions. Very liberating

[California Dolphin]

On the subject of what was around before speedos, I just ran across this erotic "art" site:

www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com

Now if swimming in the nude would make a come back, we would all be in 7Th Heaven.

[SwimTeamAlum]

I doubt swimming naked in swim class would get much traction nowadays, but I would do it rather than lose credit for sure. Would probably be more interested in trying it during a swim practice. See what impact the increased drag would have versus racing in a speedo during meets.