Rock climbing, harbour cruises, yoga and hot air ballooning … The founder of Get Naked Australia shares his favourite things you can do nude around the country.
SAILING ON THE HARBOUR
Brendan Jones started up the Get Naked Australia Instagram account as a bit of a joke initially. The 30-year-old Sydneysider explains, “Myself and some friends started hiking and exploring local secluded swimming spots a while back.
“As you do when there’s no one around, you strip off and jump in! I got 12 photos of myself naked with a backdrop of something usually quite scenic and put them in a calendar for my wife for Christmas.
“It got a lot of laughs so I thought about starting an Instagram page for the bum shots and calling it Get Naked Australia. It just snowballed in popularity after that.”
The account now has 226K followers, with people from around the country submitting photos of themselves getting naked out in the wild.
Get Naked Australia also now runs a range of nude activities around the country. Picture: Get Naked AustraliaSource:Supplied
“Within the first year of being online the pages following grew to over 100,000 followers,” explains Brendan. “There were numerous news articles, radio interviews and even a live TV segment during a prime time news program. It literally went viral!
“We had dozens of people every day sending in their own photos from great places all over the country and stories about how the naked in nature experience made them feel. I received emails from people who were with groups of mates camping and all decided to skinny dip.
“I also received emails from people with mental health disorders and victims of domestic violence telling me how this concept of getting naked in nature has helped them reclaim their body which was very powerful stuff!”
ROCK CLIMBING
“The concept put out there was to nude up in nature either on your own or with friends,” explains Brendan. “The purpose was to have fun, help improve the way you see your own body and to help remove the stigma associated with nudity.
“That is, that nudity is immediately linked with something sexual. We want people to treat naked bodies as simply that, just a naked body. I don’t want a world where we never wear clothes. But I don’t want a world where people never get to experience the joy of swimming in the ocean naked because of body inhibitions.
“Or feel too scared to get changed in front of your best friends because of fear of judgment. Or never get a nasty medical condition checked out because of fear of someone looking at your private parts.
“I want people to feel comfortable with their bodies and I think Get Naked Australia offers a fun way to take the plunge and experience naturism for the first time.”
Rock climbing nude is for the brave. Picture: Get Naked AustraliaSource:Supplied
HOT AIR BALLOONING
“What was a very interesting observation as the page grew was that of the thousands of people who have contributed to the page’s feed, only a handful of these people would consider themselves naturists,” he said.
“The people contributing weren’t naturists, nudists, models or sexual deviants. They were every day people who were getting naked outside of the comfort of their homes for the first time. And that right there has shaped the future of what myself and my team are hoping to do with Get Naked Australia.”
YOGA RETREATS
Despite running the account, Brendan says he doesn’t consider himself a naturist or a nudist.
“I prefer to say that I’m someone who practices naturism,” he explains. “Which means I enjoy the odd skinny dip or clothing optional activities like nude beaches. This was about the time I started the page.
“I think ‘lifestyle’ is an old term which is very black or white,” Brendan continues. “It indicates to me that you’re either a nudist who is naked all the time, or you’re not.
“I think referring to being naked in nature as a “practice” is far more appealing and will reach a much wider audience as no one likes labels. Basically, when I’m with the right people and it’s in the outdoors, I love stripping off, as I think most people would.”
How is this for a morning yoga routine? Picture: Copyright, Get Naked AustraliaSource:Supplied
WEEKEND RETREATS
The Get Naked Australia events are predominantly in Sydney at the moment but they have now expanded into Queensland and Victoria.
“In Sydney we run a few harbour cruises each year and we’re now running weekend retreats,” says Brendan. “This is in addition to regular hikes, skinny dips and beach days that we run.
“This photo was taken at our first ever Get Naked Australia retreat last weekend, at Yanada Retreat in St Albans. GNA Naked Retreats will be trending one day.”
Brendan says a number of private venues and Airbnbs were on board for retreats.
“We believe that any venue can be a naturist venue as long as it’s private and the owners are open minded,” he says.
“There’s a huge market of people wanting to experience naturism in great venues but currently there aren’t many places to go. The places that we have promoted have all had continual interest since their features in our magazine and online.”
CAMPING
In Far North Queensland they now have cruises running, and they are aiming to kick off Great Barrier Reef snorkelling safaris and remote island camping.
“Lastly we’ve aligned with a tour company out of Darwin and we’re going to be working with them to provide road trips where skinny dipping in as many great outback swimming holes as possible is the goal,” says Brendan.
Would you be keen on camping with just a tent? Picture: Get Naked AustraliaSource:Supplied
What advice do you have for people who want to get out and get naked?
“Find somewhere secluded and swim naked. It’s the best feeling and you’ll want to do more of it! If you want to experience the social side of naturism then reach out, we’re looking to run more events in the future.”
What has been your favourite nude experience out in the wild in Australia?
“I’ve been skinny dipping with large groups of people before and it’s awesome! But my favourite experience to date was the most recent Sydney Harbour Cruise that we threw. Three yachts, a DJ, plenty of inflatables and about 100 naked staff and guests just having a great time in Sydney Harbour … all clothes free.”
You also have a magazine?
“In our magazine GNA we interview people about their experiences with naturism. We review the good existing naturist events in Australia and we aim to provide good modern venues for people to relax clothes free and present plenty of great places all over the country for a naked in nature experience.
“These include mountain lookouts, beaches, rivers and waterfalls. We believe if we can empower the individual to experience getting naked in nature, it will help build a big community of people who practice naturism regularly.”
What’s next on the cards for Get Naked Australia?
“Our big goal is to open up our own naturist resort near the coast somewhere north of Sydney … we just need a few investors.”
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