Short Story - When A Boy Becomes a Nudist

When a Boy Becomes Nudist

The following is a work of fiction, although in truth it is heavily based upon an actual, true life experience I had. Still, this is just a story, not an autobiography.

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As a boy growing up on the Gulf Coast of central Florida I was afforded many opportunities to enjoy the saltwater life, but not many opportunities to enjoy a nudist life.

During my youth my father had a boat and on Sundays when I'd get home from church my dad would be waiting and we'd head out to the Gulf of Mexico to go fishing.

We'd get about a half-mile off the coast, drop anchor and cast our lines. It was a good distance, far enough for the off shore fish, but still in view of the beaches, houses and hotels along the shore. We'd catch speckled trout, snook, grouper and way too many (inedible) salt-water catfish (which we'd throw back).

I was supposed to be fishing like my dad and Lord knows I tried, but as much as he wanted to make a great fisherman out of me, it just wasn't going to happen. I never had the patience, nor the interest, nor the love of eating the fish we caught, to find anything about it appealing.

On the other hand, I loved to swim. Often while my dad would fish, I would put down my rod and reel and instead go swimming around the boat in the warm, clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico. That was my thing. I would swim until I got tired, then climb back in the boat and crash on the seat cushions under the small spot of shade afforded by a narrow canopy.

That's what I enjoyed doing most, and my dad knew that. But I also had a secret I didn't share with my dad.

My secret was that I liked being naked whenever I could.

There were some woods and a hidden lake in our neighborhood. For years I would go there with a friend, a neighbor boy a bit older than me, and there we would secretly release our inner Adam, allowing our naturist souls (and bodies) to run free.

We were boys like most boys in human history and true nudists at an early age. We would go off in the woods and skinny dip in the lake and then just hang out naked in the forest. We were a couple of friends enjoying life naked, alone and in nature and all was right with the world, as long as we never got caught.

We knew being naked was a bad thing to do; sinful and improper behavior for any boy over the age of 2-or-3-years-old! Mind you, all we were doing was hanging out naked and swimming and running around the woods and just plain enjoying nature, but we knew we had to keep this evil habit to ourselves or suffer dire consequences.

And then, one day, when I was not quite 10-years-old, I was out on the boat with my dad, looking at the sunlight sparkling off the waves and the water. I got to thinking and before I knew it, the words just came tumbling out...

"I wish I could swim naked here."

I don't know why I said it out loud, but I immediately wished I hadn't.

Of course, it was too late, the thought was out and my dad had heard it.

I hoped dad would just ignore me, as he usually did, but this time, he didn't.

"Go ahead," he said, very casually.

I looked up at him, momentarily confused. What did he say?

My dad was still slowly working his rod and reel to catch fish and didn't even glance over at me. After a moment, I realized he was probably just pulling my leg.

"Yeah, right," I said, putting my head back down on the seat cushion. I was sure he didn't mean it, but still... Now the thought just hung out there like a cloud.

"Seriously," I added dreamily, after a moment, "sometimes I wish I really could just jump in the ocean naked, you know, and swim like a fish."

To my surprise, dad just shrugged. He didn't seem shocked or offended. In fact, he acted like it was no big deal. "So do it. Go ahead. No one's gonna see you."

We were not very far out from the coast but he was right, we were certainly far enough that no one could see if I was naked.

But I still couldn't believe he was serious. Was my dad was actually suggesting I do something "naughty" like swim naked? That couldn't be.

My dad was ex-military, retired and a by-the-book kind of man. He was never shy about his body, but we were not nudists. My dad would walk from the shower to his bedroom undressed and never seemed to care about being seen naked around the house, but this was different. We were outside. We always wore swim trunks. There was no way he'd be okay with his son getting all bare-assed naked.

Would he?

He had to be setting me up, that's all I could imagine. He was waiting to see if I would be stupid enough to actually think he was serious and try it. Then he'd smack my bare ass and start yelling at me, asking me if I was nuts, that of course he was kidding! How stupid was I to not have known he was joking and what the hell was I thinking, exposing myself outside?

And yet, looking at him, he seemed to be completely serious.

"Really?" I asked, nervously.

For the first time he turned and looked at me, his face as serious as ever. "Why not?" as if he truly didn't care.

Uncertainly, I stood up and walked to the side of the boat where we had a ladder for going in and out of the water. The boat was anchored in a shallow sand bar. We weren't going anywhere and the water looked just beautiful, picture perfect, begging a boy like me to just get naked and jump in.

I looked back at him, still certain he was trying to trick me. "You mean it? I mean, for real?"

At this point my dad was getting tired of me questioning him. "Look, if you're too scared don't do it, I'm not making you. You're a shy little kid, okay, keep your suit on, but you're the one who said you wanted to do it."

"I do!" I insisted suddenly. I wasn't scared, I wasn't shy, I wasn't a "little kid," I just didn't know if I believed him.

I hadn't been naked around my dad for a long time. I didn't think he was okay with me doing that anymore. And I wasn't a little boy, I was almost 10! Way too old to be naked outside, right?

But I guess in truth, I WAS a little bit nervous. I was comfortable being naked around my friend because when we got naked we were both naked, but this was just me alone. Dad wasn't offering to join me.

I looked back at my dad, nervously. "You promise! I'm not gonna get in trouble?"

At this point Dad totally lost his patience with me.

"You don't wanna do it, don't do it!" he said sharply, clearly irritated now. "If you're too scared, you're too scared, just don't say I stopped you."

"I'm not scared!" I said boldly.

That was it, the breaking point - my dad was calling me a 'fraidy cat! It was a dare now, I either had to do it or let him think I was a coward.

With a single swift motion I slide my bathing suit down and off, getting totally butt naked right there in broad daylight, exposing myself in front of my dad for the first time in years.

I tossed my bathing suit onto the seat, climbed up the side of the boat, no doubt flashing my cotton-tail white little boy buns as I did! Then I jumped over the side and into the water with a splash.

The water wrapped in around me and enveloped every part of my body in a way I'd never felt before. It was like being swaddled in a warm, salty blanket, with nothing clinging, or sticking to my skin, like a wet bathing suit does. It felt as wonderful and as natural as I had hoped it might, as good as I had imagined.

I felt free. I felt natural. It just felt so right.

This was how I was supposed to be swimming.

Right then I knew, this was the way I was meant to be, naked in nature without a care or a worry.

I was a born nudist, I always had been, but for the first time in my life, I didn't have to do it in secret and in shame. For the first time, I could be naked outside without guilt. I had my father's permission to be nude.

Immediately I began swimming around the boat, diving under the water and coming back up, splashing and laughing. This was great.

I swam without a care or worry and just to show off, I began circling the boat doing a back stroke so I could look up at my dad and smile at him as I went past. I wanted him to see that I was neither shy, nor scared, nor embarrassed in any way about being naked in the ocean in front of him.

Now my dad was a very serious man and not one to smile very often, but as he glanced over at his naked son, swimming around the boat fully nude and without a care in the world, my dad smiled as big a smile of pride as I ever saw from him. I think in his eyes, at that moment, I took a step into being more of a man.

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The above is offered up merely as a work of fiction, although in truth it is heavily based upon my own actual, true life experience. Still, it's not an autobiography, just a story. Hope you enjoyed it and hope it inspires others to post Nudist Stories here as well.

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