Dave Cole

With summer on the way my thoughts turn once again to the beach. For me, "the beach" can only mean the world famous Black's Beach in San Diego.

I am lucky to be able to call Black's Beach my backyard; I live only a short drive away. I am also lucky to belong to a wonderful group called Black's Beach Bares.

Like most naturist communities, Black's Beach Bares enjoys a wide range of activities. Some people just want to sit and have a quiet time, while others hardly sit at all. Last summer I would spread out a sheet to lie on in the morning, and at sunset I would pick it up and realize that I never used it. I keep busy all day helping set up the grill for barbecues, cleaning up trash and kelp, building sand castles, playing smash ball, volleyball, and Frisbee, body boarding, and just visiting with friends.

A few group members have been picking up trash at Black's for more years than even they can remember. We keep a rake with us to clean up the kelp on the sand. We play games, build sand castles and generally act like children again.

We meet new people from all over the world on the beach. Some only get here once or twice a year; for others it might be a once in a lifetime visit. Still others come regularly from the Los Angeles area.

We try to make sure somebody from Black's Beach Bares is on site almost every day during the prime season. Last summer we began distributing informational fliers to new visitors and hosting a weekly barbecue. Every Sunday from June through September we provided a grill for anyone who wanted to cook a hot meal. At first it was just hot dogs and hamburgers. It took a while for the concept to catch on (people didn't want to risk bringing raw meat and not be able to cook it).

We found out that many beachgoers were vegetarians, so we started getting more creative with sweet corn, broccoli and zucchini. (I even tried popcorn once; it didn't work.) By the end of the summer we had fish, hot wings, steak, sausage and carne asada cooked on the Bares' grill. We always seemed to have too much food and would share with anybody near us. We got to know more and more people, and many of them joined our beach support group.

The Sunday barbecues are a lot of work, but without all the people involved, they would never happen. Everything we do is voluntary; nobody has a set job. We just do whatever is needed to get the party going. We have adopted this beach and are trying to make it a better place for everybody.

On a typical Sunday we might have 20 or 30 Bares on the beach. During the 2001 Western Naturist Gathering, we were able to get 60 people to leave the Gathering to visit our little piece of paradise. I thought that they were only going to come for a couple hours, but they had so much fun they stayed most of the day.

One of the topics I heard discussed over and over that day was the condition of the main Burro Trail leading to the beach. There is an informal group called the Black's Beach Diggers that has been doing maintenance on the trail for the last few years. The result is that the trail these days is in the best condition it's been in for a long time.

It's not all good news down on the beach, though. The main reason we felt it was important to revitalize the Black's Beach Bares is that we noticed some couples and single women having a problem with gawkers. Unfortunately Black's Beach has had a recurrent problem with gawkers who move up and down the beach, stopping to sit close to and stare at women.

We watched the same offenders doing this week after week, year after year, and finally decided to do something about it. Now, we go and offer help when we see someone who is being harassed. We have talked with some of the other groups at the beach and have found that they do similar things.

Unfortunately all this does is move the gawkers to another part of the beach. We are trying to educate other beachgoers about this and point out the problem people to them as well.

On days other than Sunday, the beach is not as crowded and the mood is much more laid back. These are the days that I actually sit down and relax.

Holidays are always fun. We have the barbecue area set up, and our group's coordinator, Lloyd Johnson, brings an ice cream maker. This is always a hit, especially with the kids.

While we are trying to make the beach better for other people, we haven't lost track of why we are there. We're there to have fun and spend time with friends.

There are a couple volleyball courts on the beach. The courts aren't in the immediate area of our group, but we are welcome to play. I can't say enough about the people who build and maintain the volleyball courts. It is a lot of effort to get the metal poles down the hill and posted in the sand. They go the extra mile, bringing a net, a ball and enough rope to make border lines. The courts are raked regularly to keep them free of rocks. We are blessed with soft sand at Black's; it's some of the best around for playing volleyball. The end result is professional-quality courts, and some great players.

Then there is a group that plays horseshoes all day. I have never asked to play, mainly because they never seem to stop. It is rare to see the shoes idle.

Most of us believe Black's is the best beach in San Diego. It is primitive in the best sense; you feel cut off from the rest of the world.

There are two guys in particular who are directly responsible for the cleanliness of this beach. They never want any credit for what they do, but they spend a couple of hours at least two days a week, year round, picking up trash that washes up or is left behind by others. In the winter and fall they climb all over the cliffs picking trash out of the canyons before it has a chance to wash down to the ocean during the winter rains. Because of these two individuals, many more of us have become aware of how important it is to pack out trash; the beach is now one of the cleanest in the area.

The downside of this awareness is that I can't take a nice, leisurely walk down the beach anymore without looking for trash! Most of us Bares can be seen with a trash bag in hand while walking down the beach.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped make this beach the special place that it is. To all those who visit regularly, and even those who I may have met just once or twice, thank you. For those who I haven't met yet, if you see a guy wearing a Mickey Mouse hat (sometimes with a propeller on top), offering you jerk chicken and an information flier, that's just me, welcoming you to paradise.

For more information on the Black's Beach Bares, visit the website at www.blacksbeach.org.

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