Sheriffs disrupt Skinny Dip Day at Bates Beach
Deputies have resumed enforcement at the unofficial nude beach, and organizers say a handful of bad actors are to blame
Participants at this year’s Skinny Dip Day gathering at Bates Beach spent the event in swimsuits.
The July 11 event, organized jointly by Friends of Bates Beach and the Southern California Naturist Association, was interrupted when Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the beach’s north end and asked participants to dress. Deputies made contact with the group after someone on the beach raised the presence of nude beachgoers. No citations were issued.
As it happened, the deputies encountered a group that included the presidents of both major American naturist membership organizations. Linda Weber, president of the American Association for Nude Recreation, and Cynthia Holbach, president of the Naturist Society Foundation, were both at the beach that day, along with Rolf Holbach, who shares leadership roles across the organizing groups. Weber and the Holbachs spoke with the officers directly. “The Sheriffs were very professional,” Weber said. “It was a respectful dialog.”
The group photo from the event shows everyone in swimsuits.
The disruption was not a complete surprise to beachgoers. Enforcement at Bates has been escalating since at least late June.
On June 20, a member of the Friends of Bates Beach community reported on the group’s Meetup Page that deputies had come to the north end and verbally warned everyone present, telling them there had been “misinformation about the beach” and that anyone caught nude would face a $500 citation. By early July, members were asking one another in the comments whether deputies had resumed ticketing, and whether the Skinny Dip Day event would proceed at all. On the day itself, patrol cars were spotted in the parking lot before the event began.
That $500 figure does not reflect the current penalty. Under Santa Barbara County Code Sec. 24-15(c), a violation is an infraction punishable by a fine of fifty dollars for a first offense, one hundred dollars for a second offense within a year, and two hundred fifty dollars for each additional offense thereafter. A $500 fine and the possibility of jail time appear in an earlier version of the ordinance that has since been amended.
Bates Beach has operated for decades as an unofficial nude beach. Weber notes that FOBB and others previously worked with the County Board of Supervisors and other agencies to designate a portion of the beach, well down from the main stretch, as a place where nude use was understood to be tolerated. That understanding appears to be under pressure.
Weber attributes the renewed enforcement not to a change in county policy but to behavior by people outside the naturist community. “It appears it is a few bad actors who aren’t nudists who are causing the issue,” she said, describing recent conduct at the beach by exhibitionists unaffiliated with the organized groups.
Weber and Rolf Holbach are seeking meetings with the agencies involved. Their approach, she said, is to identify the individuals responsible for the complaints rather than treat the deputies as adversaries. “The Sheriffs understood, but they have a job to do,” Weber said. “The advocacy and fight never ends to normalize naturism.”
She frames the broader stakes plainly. “These are nude privileges and not rights,” Weber said, “and how easily we can lose them without AANR and other groups consistently working with local officials to foster good relationships.”
If you’re going
Anyone planning to visit Bates Beach should understand that nudity there is not currently protected, and deputies have said they will issue citations. Under the county ordinance, a violation is an infraction carrying a fifty dollar fine for a first offense, rising to one hundred dollars for a second within a year and two hundred fifty dollars for each one after that.
Planet Nude will follow this story as organizers meet with county agencies. 🪐
