Another nude swim planned at Calgary pool

Naked swim on again A naturalist group says it will host a naked swim in Calgary in July after a previous event was cancelled due to threats

Swimsuits will be optional at a public swim event next month being organized by Calgary Nude Recreation.

Scheduled for July 7, the event is open only to group members and their guests. Attendees must pre-register and the location is not being released publicly.

Organizer Naked Jeff, who declined to give his real last name, said they’re hoping to attract “like-minded people” to the event.

“The numbers we aren’t so concerned about, we’d rather have a good group of people,” he told CTV News Calgary.

“Nudity is a really big deal in our culture and we’re working on that and we recognize that a lot of people kind of need to see it for themselves. They visualize what they think it might be and it’s usually not very accurate compared to reality.”

Jeff said the group aims to push “body positive values.”

“We’re encouraging people to be shameless about themselves in their truest form, basically, acceptance of other people and being friendly,” he said.

“It’s respecting people regardless of what they are or are not wearing, which is really needed in our culture.”

A similar nude swim was planned in January 2018 at Southland Leisure Centre, which resulted in a petition being created calling on the city to cancel the event or ban children from attending.

City officials ultimately decided to cancel the swim, citing security concerns after a threat was received. But the two sides later came to an agreement that would allow events to continue.

Since then, Jeff said the group has kept a low profile and held several meet-ups, without incident.

“Mostly nude swims,” he said. “We had indoor volleyball and we’re going to be having hikes this summer.”

Jeff added another goal for the group is to show nudity doesn’t necessarily equate to sexuality.

“Our culture definitely tends to think that nudity and sexuality is intertwined. It’s not,” said Jeff.

“People at a normal pool during public hours, they’re wearing hardly anything, skimpy little swimsuits, and most people wouldn’t think that would be inherently sexual.

“It’s just normal people doing normal things, swimming in the pool, water sliding, whatever.”