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.

[California Dolphin]

So there is actually a college where nude swimming is still allowed (and actually happens on a routine basis)?

Where's it at so I can come by for a visit???

[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

[Coach]

Originally Posted by California Dolphin

So there is actually a college where nude swimming is still allowed (and actually happens on a routine basis)?

Where's it at so I can come by for a visit???

It's a private high school and nudity is still allowed and occurring. They've kept a lot of the old traditions alive. I was surprised myself when I started coaching here.

We require showers, so they start getting used to seeing each other naked pretty quickly. Students coming from public school seem to have the most trouble adjusting; many of them have never had to shower at school.

We try to ease them into it as much as possible. New students get an information packet before school starts. There's also a new students day where they come to school and go to their classes for orientation prior to school starting. Their parents come with them.

I encourage students and parents to bring a swimsuit on the new student day. After we go through the syllabus, they head to the locker room to change and enjoy the pool for a little while.

You can always tell which parents are alumni. They're the ones that come out of the locker room naked. This year, a few of their kids joined them in swimming nude. About 20 minutes before the end of class, we head back to the locker room.

When I tell them about the shower policy, you can see some of their jaws drop. Since it's not a true school day, I don't require anyone to shower. I do, however, encourage them to give it a try and spend some time nude in the locker room.

I rinsed out my swim brief and headed to the showers. The ones that were already nude were washing off. Over the next few minutes, we were slowly joined by everyone else. Some students were quite anxious, but they started to relax after a few minutes. The few that had come into the showers in their swimsuits had shed them be the end.

For the first time in my career her, I had freshman swim nude on the first day. Since then, they've been joined by a few more.

[swim suit eddie]

My first time swimming in the nude, was a while back. I was invited by a good friend to a men's health club, not knowing it was a men's nudist club. He was having fun seeing my shock and surprise when told, we would be using the club swimming pool in the nude. I was wearing my favorite snug, well fitting, sky blue colored Adias brand swim briefs under my street clothes. It was quite a culture shock with me in tight swim briefs and all the other swimmers were naked. A guy who was a senior club member ,took me out to the large tile swimming pool tiled deck where other naked men swimmers sat in the bleachers to see me blush, as my Adias swimsuit is stripped off and watch my introduction to naked swimming. My good friend had fun watching what would was about to happen to me, as the senior guy member kindly reassured me not to be ashamed or embarrassed if I get an erection. Before I knew it, he had the long white drawstrings untied and dangling, then pulling on the clinging swimsuit. it was very snug and soon I had a full hard on that was noticably outlined in my tight swimsuit. This was certainly a first for me,yet enjoying the feel of him slowly peeling the clinging microfiber material down and off as I blushed with a lot of bashfulness. I was soon naked with my full erection standing at attention and all male assets and rear buns were now exposed,when my friend with all the naked swimmers watching my plight and introduction to nude swimming gave a big applause followed by much cheering, as the older senior member slowly and firmly peeled my blue Adias swim suit down my tightly squeezed legs, soon dropping to my ankles and completely stripped off me. After a while, I didn't feel so bashful being naked in the swimming pool and did feel a sense of body freedom swimming with the other naked guy swimmers. I missed being in that tight swimsuit, yet wondered what I missed in high school years or swimming at the YMCA in the nude with other naked swimmers.