SAN DIEGO -- As he paddled around in the altogether in the rolling Pacific surf, Lloyd Johnson could see the massive bleachers being erected atop the coastal sandstone cliffs at the panoramic Torrey Pines Golf Course.
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| It's not easy to get to Black's Beach, but plenty of people manage. |
"It's pretty much what you would see on any other beach," said Johnson, the frontal man for the nudist group that frequents the scenic stretch. "People playing volleyball, throwing the Frisbee, body surfing, building sandcastles, collecting seashells. Maybe playing some backgammon."
Whoa, back up there.
Call me a prude, but if people want to frolic in their birthday suits, getting salt, seaweed and sand in their nether regions, that's their prerogative. Political surveys indicate that most of us are moderate, live-and-let-live types, right? But nude board games, good god man, that fetish is just plain bent.
"Actually, I see a lot of backgammon games," Johnson laughed. "How scandalous is that?"
Throw on a codpiece, G-string, skimpy Speedo, surfer baggies or a teeny-weeny bikini, and nobody would think twice, much less look twice. But when the topic is the most famous nude beach in the United States, enduring smirks and snarky comments is the bare essence of the "naturist" business.
"We're sort of the red-headed stepchild of San Diego," said Dave Cole, 45, a nudist for more than 20 years. "We're there, but nobody wants to admit it."
Be they redheads, blondes or brunettes, there's no faking it here, because if the carpet doesn't match the drapes, everybody knows in an instant.
The roughly 300,000 souls who will roll through the gates at the U.S. Open this week believe they are witnessing the greatest event in San Diego history. Heck, it might not rank as the biggest spectacle on that patch of the coast.
A scant 100 yards below one of the most scenic vistas in golf is a historic eye-opener of another sort. Paralleling the Torrey courses is a stretch of storied sand called Black's Beach, where they congregate in the buff below the bluff.
It's an overcast Sunday, four days and counting until, borrowing a favorite phrase from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, there are balls in the air at Torrey. Um, that has been the case at Black's for parts of four decades.
"What brings you down here today?" Johnson asks a visitor.
