It is hard to believe that for 55 years, everyone swam in the lake at Como ie they had no pool. The only Gator attack came 15 years after they had opened the pool in 1987 and that only after a weekend of prodding and poking a 10 foot one -eyed gator followed by some crazy woman trying to pet it, did it attack anyone.....luckily unlike Humpty Dumpty, they were able to put her together again ...the gator however was not so lucky the next day when Florida Game and Parks came
One of the many things I would have love to do nude at our old lake cabin. Unfortunately it was not at Lake Como and would not have been well received by the church camp in the same bay.
Yea, I grew up on a lake too, but there being baptists on one end and lutherans on the other, I can see the difficulty in doing it sans clothing. Spent a lot of time on the local lakes in Wisconsin fishing when I was a kid. Saw a few skyclad individuals jumping in the lake or getting some sun. Never waterskiing though
I get it! There was an Episcopal summer camp across the bay from us and they used our dock occasionally.
I occasionally swam nude and was nude up at the cabin but my own modesty forced me to wear thong swimwear on the dock, beach and in the boat.
But we gave up the cabin due to all of us having our own big homes and acreage to maintain and now the same lake is overrun with multiple layers of cabins where only a half dozen were before.
Maravilloso leer y además ver la historia fotográfica del nudismo, el verdadero nudismo, que últimamente se ha desvirtuado por los falsos nudistas. Espero se vuelva a ese nudismo verdadero y familiar.
Thanks so much for this well researched article. This definitely needs to go in an archive on the history of naturism in the US.
Speaking of history, it’s interesting to see that the professional water skiers in the 1981 photos were all fully nude while the pros in 2015 were fully nude by gender, with the women fully or partially clothed. Sign of the times, perhaps :/
Yea, I think some of that was due to the Como ski club existing back then and disbanding due to speed restrictions. Even stranger still in 2016 show which I have photos of the ladies all had pasties on ...of stars....men naked. "it was some rule" kind of weird. Thought I'd put out this little teaser bit derived from our upcoming book.......naturism history is sadly wrong, much of the data is lost, occasionally on purpose..we I am writing these books..so what we can save and get out there we will. Next years book project. "Spies, Strippers, and Suntans, the history of Naturism in New Jersey." Yea.....spoiler....the FBI had undercover, uncovered naked agents at Rock Lodge observing a couple of Czech spies......you can't make this stuff up
Thanks for your reply, Olaf. I’m looking forward to the book! That’s amazing about Rock Lodge by the way. I’ve enjoyed a few weekends there and to think there were FBI agents and spies there at some point in the past is remarkable. (I wouldn’t mind having that tour of duty if I were working at the Bureau.)
A 25hp Evinrude (2-cycle) on an all-aluminum Grumman was sufficient to haul two teenagers on our lake in the early 1960’s. The boat held a lookout passenger in addition to the operator. Waterskiing in the buff remains on my bucket list.
Similar fun in the late '50s with our family boat and a 40hp Mercury. We managed to get three skiers up and nearly four! Never naked though. No such fun in those days!
I waterskied nude at Cypress Cove during a singles weekend. That was a about 30 years ago. I tried to ski barefoot, "in other words fully nude" but the boat was to slow for that...
Great article. I live at Lake Como and am a former member of the Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team. Your article had some inconsistencies.
First off, the Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team originated at Lake Como. A Como resident named George got local skiers to come and ski there and together they put together the various ski show acts, which included the pyramids, ballet lines and jump team. Not long after that they were doing ski shows in the local community.
Somehow they got themselves invited to perform for an event near the Courtney Campbell Bridge and there were some reporters there who captured scenes of the roaring crowds during their show. They asked the skiers what their team name was but they really didn't have one at that point.
They didn't want to say anything about nudity, so they said their name was "George's Ski Club." That stuck as their very first name. Eventually there were other names, but when they became famous they changed their name to the "Tampa Bay Waterski Show Team" (TBWSST). They had a show site in Oldsmar in Pinellas County for 25 years, performing weekly for large crowds in their bleachers and around the lake.
Several years ago TBWSST lost their show site when the landowners decided to sell it to developers. They continue to do road shows by request, practicing on lakes where their team members live.
TBWSST members loved doing the Como ski shows. Their early Board of Directors, who were also show skiers, were all in favor of it and some of them were Como members and frequent visitors. However as they aged out and were replaced by younger board members who had never been to a nudist venue, things began to change. First they voted to ban members under the age of 18 from doing what they lovingly called "the nudie shows." They said that too many parents were not allowing their kids to be in it and that they did not believe public nudity was in keeping with their mission of supporting family values and high moral character.
For the youngsters on the team, doing the nudie shows became a right of passage. You got bragging rights when you were olde enough to do a Como show.
However the trend toward conservatism among the team's board members eventually led them to vote to cancel participation in the Como shows. There were too many members who were offended by the idea of public nudity.
There was also some conflict with one of Como's general managers about their show fee, which had gone up over the years as boat gas became more expensive. Never-the-less when TBWSST voted to stop performing at Como the resort lost a colorful chapter in its history regarding use of the lake.
But I think it is also worth mentioning that a number of TBWSST skiers bought Como memberships so they could use the park as nudists and some of them are still around. Unfortunately, with the exception of the former ski shows, Como stopped allowing water skiing on its lake decades ago.
Thank you for this interesting article on water skiing as part of the nude recreation experience!
Thanks for the clarifications, so I have pictures from 2016 at Como, when do you think the last one was........was thinking Como was more of the problem, but not the TBWSST board.....
That could have been their last show here. Como had a GM years ago who was not a people person, so that may have played a role in their decision not to come back. But I do know that their board voted to discontinue the Como shows because of what I mentioned above.
In earlier times, Como's GM would send a free keg of beer down to the beach for the ski team, which of course went untouched until after the show. After the boats and equipment were put away, some of the TBWSST board members and parents would go to the Butt Hutt bar to party. Some would enjoy a meal in our cafe. Younger skiers would go to the pool and hot tub, nude of course. Como's hospitality went a long way to promote nude recreation to this group of textiles.
One of my enjoyable water skiing adventures was with a bunch of friends on Lake Mead, while I attended UNLV. All of us (6-7 couples) took turns. We were quite away up the lake where the passage starts towards Lake Powell. I was skiing and my friend took the boat through a bunch of Sail Boats. As we came out of the group, I noticed one had 3-4 Nuns on board. To my surprise, they all were laughing and waving. They must have enjoyed the moment. Anyway, someone did not, because on our way back we spotted a park ranger boat on the other side of the passage way about 1/2 Mille away. I dropped into the water and the boat circled back for me a few minutes later. They missed use, but it was the end of the afternoon fun. Great time for all, apparently for the Nuns, also. (;-)
It is hard to believe that for 55 years, everyone swam in the lake at Como ie they had no pool. The only Gator attack came 15 years after they had opened the pool in 1987 and that only after a weekend of prodding and poking a 10 foot one -eyed gator followed by some crazy woman trying to pet it, did it attack anyone.....luckily unlike Humpty Dumpty, they were able to put her together again ...the gator however was not so lucky the next day when Florida Game and Parks came
One of the many things I would have love to do nude at our old lake cabin. Unfortunately it was not at Lake Como and would not have been well received by the church camp in the same bay.
Yea, I grew up on a lake too, but there being baptists on one end and lutherans on the other, I can see the difficulty in doing it sans clothing. Spent a lot of time on the local lakes in Wisconsin fishing when I was a kid. Saw a few skyclad individuals jumping in the lake or getting some sun. Never waterskiing though
I get it! There was an Episcopal summer camp across the bay from us and they used our dock occasionally.
I occasionally swam nude and was nude up at the cabin but my own modesty forced me to wear thong swimwear on the dock, beach and in the boat.
But we gave up the cabin due to all of us having our own big homes and acreage to maintain and now the same lake is overrun with multiple layers of cabins where only a half dozen were before.
So it goes…
Cheers and stay bare!
😁❤️👣🍆🍑☀️🌞
I’ve done a lot of water skiing in the 70s but not nude as I didn’t want to get arrested would love to have been nude 👍🇺🇸
Maravilloso leer y además ver la historia fotográfica del nudismo, el verdadero nudismo, que últimamente se ha desvirtuado por los falsos nudistas. Espero se vuelva a ese nudismo verdadero y familiar.
Thanks so much for this well researched article. This definitely needs to go in an archive on the history of naturism in the US.
Speaking of history, it’s interesting to see that the professional water skiers in the 1981 photos were all fully nude while the pros in 2015 were fully nude by gender, with the women fully or partially clothed. Sign of the times, perhaps :/
Yea, I think some of that was due to the Como ski club existing back then and disbanding due to speed restrictions. Even stranger still in 2016 show which I have photos of the ladies all had pasties on ...of stars....men naked. "it was some rule" kind of weird. Thought I'd put out this little teaser bit derived from our upcoming book.......naturism history is sadly wrong, much of the data is lost, occasionally on purpose..we I am writing these books..so what we can save and get out there we will. Next years book project. "Spies, Strippers, and Suntans, the history of Naturism in New Jersey." Yea.....spoiler....the FBI had undercover, uncovered naked agents at Rock Lodge observing a couple of Czech spies......you can't make this stuff up
Thanks for your reply, Olaf. I’m looking forward to the book! That’s amazing about Rock Lodge by the way. I’ve enjoyed a few weekends there and to think there were FBI agents and spies there at some point in the past is remarkable. (I wouldn’t mind having that tour of duty if I were working at the Bureau.)
A 25hp Evinrude (2-cycle) on an all-aluminum Grumman was sufficient to haul two teenagers on our lake in the early 1960’s. The boat held a lookout passenger in addition to the operator. Waterskiing in the buff remains on my bucket list.
Thanks for the great article and photos.
Similar fun in the late '50s with our family boat and a 40hp Mercury. We managed to get three skiers up and nearly four! Never naked though. No such fun in those days!
I waterskied nude at Cypress Cove during a singles weekend. That was a about 30 years ago. I tried to ski barefoot, "in other words fully nude" but the boat was to slow for that...
Wow the vibe just seems amazing.
Great article. I live at Lake Como and am a former member of the Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team. Your article had some inconsistencies.
First off, the Tampa Bay Water Ski Show Team originated at Lake Como. A Como resident named George got local skiers to come and ski there and together they put together the various ski show acts, which included the pyramids, ballet lines and jump team. Not long after that they were doing ski shows in the local community.
Somehow they got themselves invited to perform for an event near the Courtney Campbell Bridge and there were some reporters there who captured scenes of the roaring crowds during their show. They asked the skiers what their team name was but they really didn't have one at that point.
They didn't want to say anything about nudity, so they said their name was "George's Ski Club." That stuck as their very first name. Eventually there were other names, but when they became famous they changed their name to the "Tampa Bay Waterski Show Team" (TBWSST). They had a show site in Oldsmar in Pinellas County for 25 years, performing weekly for large crowds in their bleachers and around the lake.
Several years ago TBWSST lost their show site when the landowners decided to sell it to developers. They continue to do road shows by request, practicing on lakes where their team members live.
TBWSST members loved doing the Como ski shows. Their early Board of Directors, who were also show skiers, were all in favor of it and some of them were Como members and frequent visitors. However as they aged out and were replaced by younger board members who had never been to a nudist venue, things began to change. First they voted to ban members under the age of 18 from doing what they lovingly called "the nudie shows." They said that too many parents were not allowing their kids to be in it and that they did not believe public nudity was in keeping with their mission of supporting family values and high moral character.
For the youngsters on the team, doing the nudie shows became a right of passage. You got bragging rights when you were olde enough to do a Como show.
However the trend toward conservatism among the team's board members eventually led them to vote to cancel participation in the Como shows. There were too many members who were offended by the idea of public nudity.
There was also some conflict with one of Como's general managers about their show fee, which had gone up over the years as boat gas became more expensive. Never-the-less when TBWSST voted to stop performing at Como the resort lost a colorful chapter in its history regarding use of the lake.
But I think it is also worth mentioning that a number of TBWSST skiers bought Como memberships so they could use the park as nudists and some of them are still around. Unfortunately, with the exception of the former ski shows, Como stopped allowing water skiing on its lake decades ago.
Thank you for this interesting article on water skiing as part of the nude recreation experience!
Thanks for the clarifications, so I have pictures from 2016 at Como, when do you think the last one was........was thinking Como was more of the problem, but not the TBWSST board.....
That could have been their last show here. Como had a GM years ago who was not a people person, so that may have played a role in their decision not to come back. But I do know that their board voted to discontinue the Como shows because of what I mentioned above.
In earlier times, Como's GM would send a free keg of beer down to the beach for the ski team, which of course went untouched until after the show. After the boats and equipment were put away, some of the TBWSST board members and parents would go to the Butt Hutt bar to party. Some would enjoy a meal in our cafe. Younger skiers would go to the pool and hot tub, nude of course. Como's hospitality went a long way to promote nude recreation to this group of textiles.
One of my enjoyable water skiing adventures was with a bunch of friends on Lake Mead, while I attended UNLV. All of us (6-7 couples) took turns. We were quite away up the lake where the passage starts towards Lake Powell. I was skiing and my friend took the boat through a bunch of Sail Boats. As we came out of the group, I noticed one had 3-4 Nuns on board. To my surprise, they all were laughing and waving. They must have enjoyed the moment. Anyway, someone did not, because on our way back we spotted a park ranger boat on the other side of the passage way about 1/2 Mille away. I dropped into the water and the boat circled back for me a few minutes later. They missed use, but it was the end of the afternoon fun. Great time for all, apparently for the Nuns, also. (;-)