Post #3 - Lady Bay nude beach - Nudist destination review

Destination - Lady Bay Beach
Location - Watsons Bay, Sydney, Australia.
Review duration -  A weekday in May 2017

Official link -  N/A

Brief review

Brief background

• A legal nude beach, just within 12 km of city center. It is close to a residential area and is within a few minutes walking distance from the nearest bus stop.

Detailed Review

When I visited

• During the time I visited, it was cloudy on most days so not good for the beach. I got only one perfect sunny day out of my 3-4 days stay in Sydney. The water had started to get cold, but was very comfortable. So, I recommend April as a better time to go. Also, choose a weekend if you would like to see less older crowd, because they are expected to be free during weekdays.

Gender ratio 

• The crowd was good on the day I visited. Gender ratio was roughly 1:7 on the beach and with a total of around 20 plus people at a time, it was feeling congested. 
• All the men were naked and roughly 50% women were naked. There were a few couples with the women wearing their bikinis.
• One solo young woman, probably in her early 20s, was fully clothed, and not in bikini or beachwear. There was one fully naked young solo woman as well, probably in her late 20s or early 30s. 

Body sizes ratio

• Roughly 3:2 was the ratio of slim to moderately sized women. I remember, the solo young woman who was completely naked, was in very good shape. The clothed solo woman was slim. I don't exactly the remember this ratio among men, but it was probably 1:1 or so.

People watching the nudists

• The beach is clearly visible from the entry point, from the walkway above, where the sign board of the beach lies. 
• A lot of people, mostly women, were just taking a peek from the stairs above and leaving. Women doing so were roughly 5 times as much as compared to the men.
• Although I did not notice anyone taking pictures, people can be easily photographed from there.
• There were cruises passing by at some distance and I heard the crowd on one of them shouting and screaming, probably after knowing that they were passing by a nude beach.

Interaction level

• There was no group activity going on.
• There were couples relaxing together and solo individuals on their own.
• I saw two men joining and placing themselves on the rock right next to the solo naked woman. As the beach has very limited space, there are not too many options if you would like to settle down on a rock on the main area of the beach. While they had not yet disrobed, they said hello to the lady who returned the same gesture and got dressed at the same time and left in a while.

Difficulty level

• It may feel a bit difficult to get naked here, particularly for a woman, because there is not a lot of space in the beach. 
• The visibility from the path above and the tourists photographing and recording may make it even more difficult.
• A lot of people who come to visit the Camp Cove beach and the nearby national park walk right by the board of the beach and they feel curious to have a peek which is instantly available.
• A lot of travel resources note this beach as one where clothed tourists come to gawk at the nude people. Here is one such youtube video made by some girls who had some good laughs looking at the naked men.
• I read a comment by someone on tripadvisor that he/she saw a charter boat full of tipsy middle aged women come in to the beach for a look-see and they were really having a a great time perving at the guys on the beach and yelling into a megaphone. 

Further reading

If you are first timer or are looking for some easier place to get naked at the beach, I would recommend Maslins beach, in Adelaide, that too, during the annual nude games event where the vibe is completely different. Read my review here. 

My visits to Cobbler's and Obelisk beaches, in Sydney, during the same season, were not on good beach days and hence not worth remembering. I do not remember enough to write a review, so would add here, that on one of these beaches, I observed some gay activity right from the entry point. If you had a different experience, please share with as much level of details as you got here!

Post #2 - Community/Platform review of Floh - A platform for singles

Location - Delhi/Mumbai/Pune/Bengaluru, India
Official link - https://www.floh.in/

Quick details

Brief background

• Floh is a revolutionary platform for singles in India, because it has addressed one very big problem in the dating scenario - the highly skewed effective gender ratio. This is a game changer in the market, simply because the availability of an equal number of females has made the men less desperate in their approaches and this has improved the overall experience for both the genders. Floh is the only platform which guarantees a balanced gender ratio in it's events. 
• The platform is pretty liberal and does not dictate how participants are supposed to take it forward to -

"Floh is much more than just a matrimonial or a dating website – it’s a “Singles Community”. We facilitate conversations between screened members via exciting and fun events and let things take a turn via that."

• Members have to undergo a screening process and membership is paid.
• All members are professionals and come from diverse fields, ranging from the very common, IT professionals to rocket scientists and entrepreneurs into organic farming.
• There is a great variety in their events as well. 
• Undoubtedly, there is, no close competitor of their kind in the market, as of 2018. Another platform, which comes close, and conducts events in Pune as well, is called Footloose No More. 

Gender ratio and other details of participants

• The gender balance is well maintained in their events, as they claim it. No disappointments are expected. Event registrations have a fixed equal number of slots for men and women. Only if someone cancels, their slot remains empty.
• However, do note that there are some events called Floh Pops, which do not guarantee the same. These things are generally mentioned in every event's detail section.
• The guest list, with the profiles of all the attendees, is shared to all other attendees, one day in advance of an event date.
• Talking about a treasure hunt event I had attended, the average age of women, roughly at around 32, was a bit higher than that of the men, which was roughly around 29–30. Talking about the age ranges, there were two ladies aged 36 and one gentleman roughly the same. The youngest, among the ladies was around 28 and among the gentlemen, was around 27. I would have really wanted to see some more women in the 25 to 30 age group. Similarly, more men in the 35+ age group could have probably balanced out the women in the higher age group.
• The gender ratio is maintained by keeping the membership application of additional members on hold, till a balance is reached. As such, the profiles available online, via the app, is also expected to have a healthy gender ratio. Profiles are accessible without actually attending events as well.
• It is expected to be tougher for the men to become a member, because of the higher number of men available in general. One of my dear friends, who got rejected, blames it to his lack of preparation and the noise in the surroundings, when he picked up the automated screening call. Wishing you good luck!

For more reading

• Floh FAQ
• My first experience of attending a Floh event
• For more about the author and the project read - What exactly is The Gender Ratio Project?

Post #1 - Pilwarren Maslin beach nude games - Nudist event review

Event - Pilwarren Maslin beach nude games.

Location - Adelaide, Australia.

Official link - https://www.pilwarren.com/pilwarren_maslin_beach_nude_games…
Review period - Jan 2018

Quick review

Brief background

Pilwarren Maslin beach nude games is a must attend, one of a kind event which is held annually during the month of January. It is an absolutely family friendly event greatly organized by David and his wife who run a naturist resort called Pilwarren in South Australia.

I attended the event in January 2018. The event was quite interactive because there were team events as well, like tug of war (Pilwarren vs rest of the world) and bucket filling competitions. There were lots of people in the audience as well, who were enjoying a clothes free day. There were kids in the audience as well and among the participants. Following are some stats, based on my observations.

Gender ratio and other details of visitors

• There were roughly 60-80 participants and almost a 100 to 150 visitors. 
• Event participation rules - Although the event schedule and time table was published beforehand, participants were accepted on first come first serve basis. There was a donut eating competition as well in which participants got to eat free donuts.
• They were raising some money in a very fun way. Visitors were welcome to try their luck to be judges for the best bum competitions (yes they had these too where male bums were judged by females and vice versa) by purchasing lottery tickets.
• Nudity rules - It is a legal nude beach, although people could be found in various states of undress. 
• There were no "couple only" entry rules or need of any kind of membership or affiliations to any groups. Nudity was not mandatory for regular visitors. 
• Participation in all the games, excluding the best bum competitions, allowed clothing. 
• There were a few women wearing bikini bottoms and few with both tops and bottoms among the crowd. 
• For some reason, the kids had to be wearing something and could not be completely naked.
• Gender ratio was quite healthy. Just to give an idea, there were two batches of participants for men's 35+ category for the best bum competitions and one batch each for men's 18 to 35 and women's 18 to 35 and 35+ categories. The female:male ratio was roughly 1:4 (consider the bigger batch sizes of the 35+ men) among participants. 
• On a regular weekday, on the same beach and at the same time (2 to 5 pm), the male presence was much higher. The ratio was roughly 1:10 or higher. 
• States of undress -  By the end of the event, I think, all male participants were naked. Among visitors, I guess, 95% or more were naked. 
• Almost all female participants were ultimately naked. One of the female participants was clothed in all the games. For the best best bum competition however, she was not allowed to participate without being naked. She did it after some encouragement from the crowd and was ultimately one of the winners. 
• Age bracket ratio - Ratio of number of people in 18-35 bracket vs 35+ was roughly 1:2.5, considering almost triple the number of older men, as compared to the other three groups. 
• Racial and ethnic composition - Majority of the crowd looked white. I spoke with a few Germans and Chinese. Few men, women having south-east Asian looks were present. Few men with Indian subcontinent like looks were also present.
• I guess, roughly half were Adelaide locals, based on the number of participants in the tug of war competition between Pilwarren vs Rest of the world.

Difficulty level

• Easy and better for beginners as compared to a regular day at the beach because of the presence of event organizers and seniors/moderators from the active nudist community. While I found the Lady Bay beach in Sydney itself quite safe for women as there were clothed as well as naked solo females present, these kind of events seemed to be more safe for beginners. A regular day on a nude beach often can be less crowded, and the basic human nature of checking out strangers  along with lack of chances of ice breakers may add to the creepiness. In such events, however, with chances to break the ice, the awkwardness factor is easily gone.
• While you can see photos of the event participants in the official site, don't worry if you are looking to participate and are worrying about getting photographed. All the photographs with faces exposed were taken with consent of the participants. All other pictures can be seen with faces masked. Nobody, excluding the event organizers were allowed to take pictures during the event. I remember one suspicious looking man was questioned by the organizers who was looking from above. He later left. Follow the facebook page of The Gender Ratio

Other links

• Follow the facebook page for more such articles and read more about the Gender Ratio Project there.