Jacob Riis Park
Queens, NY
July 1979
July 1979
Riis Risqué
One of the bonuses of my relocation to New York City in August 1978 was access to the ocean. Summer provided an opportunity to really explore the beaches. I started with the most famous beach of all, Coney Island and the contiguous Brighton Beach, which were the easiest to reach by subway from almost anywhere in the city. But a friend of mine told me about other beaches, especially the Rockaways in Queens (controlled by the city) and their geographically connected sibling, Jacob Riis Park (managed by the National Park Service). One day he accompanied me to Riis Park but didn't tell me entirely what to expect. Our excursion became one of the most unique and memorable experiences of my early New York City life.
Jacob Riis Park and Beach
Jacob Riis Park is part of the Jamaica Bay Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and it lies at the foot of the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, toward the southwestern end the Rockaway Peninsula. It is accessible via subway from the A train (at the time, part of the IND or Independent Subway line) and a transfer in Queens to a shuttle (S train) which ends at Beach 116th Street, followed by a mile long walk west along the shore until you reach the park. However, we took another route which involved exiting the 2 or 5 train (at the time, part of the IRT or Interborough Rapid Transit) in Brooklyn and transferring at the end of the line (Flatbush-Brooklyn College station) to a bus that crosses the bridge and finally arrives at Riis Park. On hot days, all the public transit options were packed with beachgoers which was extra fascinating to me.
Jacob Riis Park contains a huge art deco bath house (built in 1932) and a very large parking lot. Once we walked past those facilities, the sand spread out before us. Beyond, the ocean stretched in all its deep blue glory. Sections of the beach were referred to as bays and my friend said we should head for "Bay 1". He knew the exceptional character of that particular spot and dropped hints that it was "very" liberal, but I wasn't sure exactly what he meant until we found ourselves in the middle of that area and began laying blankets down on the sand. Then I saw what he was talking about.
Relaxed Nudity
As I gazed out on the shore, some people were walking around naked! Huh? What a minute. My friend was laughing.
I had never been to a beach where there were many publicly nude people, including both sexes. I was almost too embarrassed to take pictures but I got out my camera and decided I had to record at least a few scenes in front of me. Although I was unobtrusive, no one really seemed to notice or object to my capturing any visuals on film. There was an air of freedom and maybe exhibitionism, too. A few very well endowed men (there were more males than females in the nude) and some noticeably large breasted women seemed to enjoy if not revel in the opportunity to show off their ample body parts as they strolled down the beach or relaxed on the sand. Of course, there were many average bodies that were on display as well. But I wasn't the only one noticing. Everyone was a voyeur, except there was no need to be surreptitious about it. We were all free to see and be seen.
An Education
That day was educational for me. I had by then been nude in front of other guys countless times in gym locker rooms and showers in high school, college and at local YMCAs. I had taken nude self-portraits and photographed other people in the nude in my photo studio or in secluded areas outdoors. But despite my liberal attitude, my conservative Midwestern background would not let me readily drop my swim trunks and join those who were relaxing on the sand or splashing in the water as naked as the day they entered life. At Riis, my friend did not strip and reveal his naked body, either. But Riis Park was my original introduction to what nudity looked like in a public place. I just watched and allowed Bay 1 to teach me.
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The Dancer and the Police
Over the years, I returned to Bay 1 at Riis Park with other friends and I enjoyed their surprised reactions at the scenes. On one particularly memorable occasion, a young man wearing headphones and nothing else was dancing wildly (and with considerable skill) on his towel in the sunshine, his penis whipping around and flopping rapidly as he jumped, shook and wiggled his ass and body to the beat of the music only he could hear. His presentation was so ostentatious, even on a beach that had mostly seen it all, that others began to notice the exceptional activity he was producing all by himself. It was too much. A police officer walked over to him and told him to sit down and stop the gyrating. But that was the only time I ever saw any law enforcement interference on the beach. Most of the time, there was a live and let live attitude and nothing occurred unless the behavior was really far out of the norm.
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Evolution
Nevertheless, in future years Bay 1 verged on losing its cool. Slowly it became the place for almost outrageous exhibitionism by its heavily gay and lesbian patrons. The atmosphere evolved into flirtatious and uninhibited. Even skimpy beach clothing became style conscious to a fault. But the real cause for reigning in the anything goes environment was the stumbling upon Bay 1 by straight couples, families and their kids. They would walk down the beach from the more traditional areas and suddenly find themselves in the midst of exposed, hairy penises/balls and vaginas.
Eventually, in the 1990s the park refused to allow any total nudity although females were allowed to go topless (due to a non-discrimination law that governs all of New York City). Everyone's genitals must now be covered, although Riis Park's Bay 1 remains the place for daring bathing suits worn by men and women.
The Idea
Yet I was never going to be satisfied until I swam without clothes in the ocean, once I knew that it was possible. My personal joyous, public nudity milestone took place a few years later when I went without clothes for a while in the water and along the shore in an almost isolated area of Jones Beach on Long Island, well away from families. Another friend told me that it was an area infrequently visited by other people, where nudity was informally allowed.
I removed my swim trunks and went into the water with no clothing. It was a wonderful experience, being at one with nature and feeling nothing but air and sunshine bathing my body (which I wrote about in my essay "Naked in Public"). It was a lot of fun, but Bay 1 at Jacob Riis Park still deserves credit for giving me the idea.