Although they say that it is never too late, I am a relatively newcomer. However, mentally, I was all for it much earlier… but let me tell you my story.    I am 28 years old and I have been a naturist for only a couple of years. I had always wanted to go to a naturist beach, but the opportunity never came up. I did not trust either my family or friends to understand and since I had always spent my summer holidays with either of them, I had not even tried to go to one. Two years ago, though, I was sent to Barcelona because of my job, and I went to Sitges fo a weekend. I had previously looked up some information and I went to L’Home Mort beach. It was not a bad beach but a bit far away. The two remote coves were full of people in spite of the weather which threatened with storms in the morning, I guess the need to go was too strong for all of us. That was my initiation baptism into the world of naturism, all alone.    Last summer, I took another small step. I did not want that experience to be the last and, as I thought there must be some facilities here, in Madrid, I searched Internet for them. That way, I knew there were two solariums, one at La Elipa sports complex, and the other at Barrio del Pilar swimming pool area. I went to La Elipa, which was the nearest. I was afraid I might meet any acquaintances and so the experience was very different from the first time.
It was not bad so I went six or seven more times during that summer, but something was still missing.

The third step was to find an association made up of people who might think like me. I wanted support; that is, friends, mates whom I could share experiences and live new ones with. I had to pluck all the courage since It takes me time to make up my mind about key decisions and about the end of August, I found ADN, at the right time. Precisely on that day, September 25, a ludic event was held. It was not a demonstration but an event to inform people about naturism in general, about the existence of the association and also to demand a naturist swimming pool from the municipal authorities. What a great success it was!

   The hardest step for me was to tell people close to me. One day I made up my mind and told the person I had trusted the most all my life. She is a friend I occasionally see but with whom I have a great relationship. After the first: “What?”, accompanied by a smile, things went fine. She understood my position and has supported me all the way.

   Next step. I went to the opening of the naturist covered swimming pool with the great people from AND. No loneliness any longer. More than 200 naturists, bright day weatherwise, well equipped swimming pool, attendants who do not look at you as if you had two heads, and even background music; all this made it a perfect day. While I was coming back home I came to realise I had a broad smile on my face as I had not had in a long time. I would like to thank all the people at ADN for the way they accepted me, the effort they made to achieve the goal of getting the swimming pool and spreading the naturist ideals.

   On that same day, the opening day for the swimming pool, I went home and shoved the towel into the washing machine. My mother was surprised, though, to see I had not put my trunks in. She went to fetch them in the rucksack, they were there but dry. I had to provide an explanation why I had not worn them although I said I had gone to the swimming pool. They did not take it as badly as I had expected. Later I showed them the Web page and the ADN bulletin. I pointed at me in one of the pictures in the bulletin taken on the opening day. Since then I’ve felt I don’t have to lie as to where I go, (trips, meetings or assemblies) or who I go with.

   A few days later, I attended the ADN Christmas party at the “13 Roses” Centre and it was simply fabulous. We were about 40 people and did not stop dancing. The party went from 6 in the evening to 2 in the morning. I am a bit clumsy at dancing, (and also shy for certain things), so it took some time, and some drinks, for me to join the others at the dance floor. Who else but Raquel, dragged me to dance. I left very soon, at about eleven, since my non-naturist friends and I had agreed to meet at a pub. I was so happy, and so drunk, that I felt like telling everybody where I was coming from. So I told them but I was disappointed. Since they are such a scream, I thought they would fall about laughing as soon as they heard about it, but they didn’t. I don’t think this topic of conversation lasted more than fifteen minutes. What struck them as odd was not naturism itself but that it was me who was a naturist. I imagine they have always thought of me as too serious and probably that was also what stopped them from making fun of me. That shows that if you take up things seriously people also tend to take you the same way.

Juanma
Membership No. 617