
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994                   TAG: 9412130077
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: LESLIE BOX JOURNAL MESSENGER
DATELINE: MANASSAS (AP)                                 LENGTH: Medium

TO SOME VIRGINIANS, HIKING IS ANOTHER NUDE INTERLUDE

The hikers reach the spot on the trail where the river bends into a still, semicircular pool - a perfect place to take a dip. So off come the boots and socks, and in they go.

Nothing else needs to come off - these hikers shed their clothes back at the campsite, trekking into the woods wearing nothing but shoes and a layer of sunscreen on parts most people hide from the sun.

Area residents Tina and Kenny Cash got their first taste of nudism more than eight years ago, when they vacationed in St. Martin. It was Tina's idea, but ``it didn't take much convincing,'' Kenny Cash recalled.

And it didn't take any more than lounging on a beach, catching up on some reading and taking a dip before they were hooked.

``We're not any different than anyone else. We all go home, we all eat, we all vote,'' Tina Cash said of the approximately 2 million Americans who try the activity each year.

To practitioners of nudism, it doesn't seem like a big deal. And this is the message nudists are trying to get across to the public.

Misconceptions about the recreation arise because ``people have trouble separating nudism from sexuality,'' said Gary Brown, executive director of the Nude Recreation Information Agency and president of Bare Buns, a clothes-optional Northern Virginia travel and recreation club.

Proponents of nudism hail the practice as ``body acceptance.'' One needn't have a model's body to be a nudist and participate in club activities. And for this reason, nudism attracts a wide range of people, Kenny Cash said.

Bare Buns, for example, rents out a private health club about once a month. Club members pay an activity fee and have free rein of the establishment: stair-climber machines, water aerobics taught by nude professional instructors, racquetball and volleyball.

Many people don't realize they have tried nudism. Brown says it takes nothing more than a skinny-dip to be classified a nudist. In 1985, the Roper Organization reported that more than 40 million Americans had swum nude in a mixed group of men and women.

Tina Cash wants to found a nudist community, a live-in compound where people can mow their lawns, walk their dogs or, if they're so inclined, shovel snow, all sans garments.

by CNB