Starkers

Naturism was all the rage in the past – but, these days, there are still a lot of people who want to take off their clothes, “Can you imagine taking a shower in your shorts? You’d be better off without them, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s pretty much the motivation behind naturism. Nudity is the most natural thing in the world. It allows direct contact with Nature and a feeling of immense well-being”, Maria Emília, a member of CNA told us.

In a conversation with our newspaper, president of CNA Álvaro Campos, a naturist since 1978, explained that there was no definitive profile for a naturist. It’s a practice adopted by people of all social classes, ages and professions. “In a naturist get-together, you don’t have rich people, poor people, doctors or engineers. All bodies are the same. Some fatter than others, some thinner, others taller – it’s all the same to us”, he said.

Nonetheless, he accepts that essentially the naturist is an individual with an environmental, as well as social, conscience who delights in contact with Nature and enjoys socialising within a community. In principle, the naturist is someone with an active civic conscience.

“But unfortunately, this sort of behaviour has begun to disappear in Portugal. The culture of ‘individualism’ has taken root”, he considers.

“These days, I think there are a lot of people who practice naturism, on their own initiative – in an anonymous way”, he adds. Why? Taboos?

“Not really, no. I think a lot of people are wary of belonging to naturist associations because they don’t want their name published on a list of members – and then have to suffer the negative consequences in their personal and professional lives”, he explains.

“And we have seen that within the practice of naturism, there’s a good percentage of people who have issues to deal with. But this is the way it goes in this country. In Portugal, people have a lot of trouble dealing with who they are”, he considers.

As a result of all this, it’s not easy to estimate how many naturists there are in Portugal. Journalist and writer Pedro Laranjeira – himself a naturist who has written on the subject – estimates that there could be around 100.000 people who take their clothes off – both nudists and naturists.

Another curious aspect of all this is the fact that the CNA still has no physical HQ. “We’ve made some approaches to the council authorities of Aljezur and Lagos – more recently Portimão – asking them to lease us one of the former primary schools that are no longer being used, but, until now, we’ve been unsuccessful”.

Nonetheless, the CNA website gets more than 50.000 hits a year – from all over the world. Contacts and requests for information arrive practically on a daily basis – most of them sent by Spanish naturists.

But disinterest is shared by hoteliers in general. “We’ve already contacted a number of them, saying that we require more accommodation and equipment – but no-one really seems interested”, Maria Emília takes up the lament.

“There really aren’t the conditions we need in the Algarve, for example, for a large gathering, or convention. Whether people like it or not, naturism is big business these days. You’ve only got to see that in France there are more than 260 places where people can go naked. And this year, Spain expects to receive 1.5 million naturists from all over Europe!”

But in the Algarve – despite the 220 kilometres of coastline, there are still only two official naturist/ nudist beaches: one at Praia das Adegas in Odeceixe, and the other at Praia do Barril on the Ilha de Tavira. There are also another 12 beaches where naturism is ‘tolerated’. In comparison, the Spanish coast offers more than 400 naturist beaches.

In terms of accommodation, the shortfall is even more marked. There’s only really «Quinta dos Carriços» in Salema, and very little else.

And anyone who may think that these places are hotbeds of sexual promiscuity, should think again. Most of the naturist campsites and parks only allow card-carrying members from an organisation such as CNA.

Only these credentials will allow members access to other naturist centres approved by the International Naturist Federation throughout the world.

“As you might imagine, these places are particularly attractive to people of dubious intentions. That’s why access to them is reserved to people who respect the ethics and philosophy of naturism – particularly because these places are frequented by families, women and children”, Campos adds.

He accepts however those mentalities have developed considerably. Society in general has no problem with naturism these days, with exception perhaps of “a small group of people who cannot see that it is a lifestyle philosophy”.

As to Catholic morals, “Pope John Paul II has already said that nudism, in itself, is not sinful”. “The sin is very often in people’s heads”, he concludes.

On 10th June last, the ecology party «os Verdes» delivered a proposal to Parliament calling for a change in the law number 29/ 94, with the objective of creating more naturist beaches.

Now with around 90 members, the Clube Naturista do Algarve was founded in July 2003 by a group of people – some of whom have practised naturism since the 70s.

Next week, the III Encontro Ibérico de Naturism (3rd Iberian Naturism Convention), involving Portuguese and Spanish naturist federations, will be going ahead between 13th and 18th August in Santiago do Cacém, in the Alentejo. The town is expected to fill up with naked people…