Sydney: Ahead of her first nude ocean swimming race, 43-year-old Sydney mother Jo Davison was a little nervous.
She had every reason to be. Australian ocean swimmers have plenty to worry about, from avoiding stinging bluebottle jellyfish and the flailing limbs of other swimmers to the sharks known to inhabit Sydney Harbour.
And of course, the issue of achieving all of that while wearing nothing.
“This is very confronting for all of us,” Davison said ahead of plunging into the calm waters of Cobblers’ Beach, one of more than 650 people who stripped naked to take part in last month’s inaugural Sydney Skinny.
But like many who anxiously took to the lapping waves, she emerged shortly afterwards having completed the 900 metre dash with her Coogee Cougars, a group of women who regularly run together for fitness, saying she felt great.
“It feels quite liberating,” she said, as she wrapped herself in a sarong.
“This is something we would never normally do... It’s something that is outside your comfort zone. So, before, we felt very nervous, very anxious. And now that we have done it, we all feel great. It’s a one-off.”
Davison said for her group of women it was a celebration of their bodies.
“Fortunately we have here together a group of women whose bodies do us very proud — we’ve had children, we run together, we train together, we’re fit, we’re healthy and I think it’s time we gave our body thanks for the good bits, the indifferent bits,” she said.
“But above all it’s a celebration of us all together.”
This is just the spirit that event organiser Nigel Marsh had in mind when he had the idea to launch a nude swim which also raised money for the National Park in which is it set.
The event is not for naturists, and it’s not a spectator sport, he insists.
“It’s a joyous community celebration where you are pushed slightly outside your comfort zone and you’re made to feel better about yourself and the world around you,” he told AFP.
