Presenting our 33rd annual guide.

By Gary Hanauer

**For an updated guide to some of the beaches below, click here. We will be updating the entire Bay Guardian Nude Beaches Guide in the coming months, but no need to keep your pants on!

On gorgeous Negril Beach, in western Jamaica, the likely future of nude beaching in the United States has already arrived: topless sunbathing is commonplace, and occasional nudity occurs just a few feet away from beach bars and cafes.

In May, during my sixth research trip there, my girlfriend Dawn (making her 14th trip to Jamaica since 2000) and I also got naked massages, including one for me that was "four-handed," meaning two masseuses provided the rubdown at the same time. Dawn’s was the regular, one-person variety at a spa on a beachside road. "Wow," she said afterward. "I'm so relaxed I can hardly move."

Who knows? The wait to transform our relatively unimproved California nude beaches into properties that offer various resources to visitors may not take so long, considering how many new sites keep coming online.

In fact, nearly 40 years after Northern California gave birth to America’s first nude beach at San Gregorio, we're now in the midst of a watershed year in nude beaching: clothing-optional beaches and other sites are booming once again.

Want to work on the perfect tan at Privates, a pristine cove near Capitola we're unveiling that's so private you usually have to buy a monthly or yearly pass to enter it? We describe why paying the fee's the best option, but also tell you how to get there for free.

For years, readers have been asking us for directions to new nude beaches in Sonoma County, where antinudity regulations have sent suitless sunbathing sinking. This season we deliver by introducing two emerging sites next to the Russian River, the largest such beaches to emerge in Sonoma County in more than a decade.

You can pick from six or seven minicoves used by nudists and be the only one on the beach at a Humboldt County site we're naming for the first time, and we also let you know what’s the best time of day to visit. Meanwhile, at another new Humboldt discovery, naked rockhounding -- especially for jade and agate -- is possible.

Or what about going on a naturist's dream come true: a naked full-moon hike on a trail in the East Bay? "It was pure magic," says a participant. In a brand-new Contra Costa County listing, we explain how to participate in such a walk.

As you explore our guide, check for new entries in Contra Costa, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties, as well as Lake Tahoe.

In all, we've added 11 new listings and 11 sets of improved directions for existing sites, for a total of 22 major changes to our annual gathering of the area's clothing-optional beaches, lakes, ponds, rivers, swimming holes, hot springs, and even waterfalls, meadows, public swimming pools, and paths.

The only bummer this season: Santa Cruz's Red, White and Blue Beach, a beloved, privately operated nude version of a state beach, has closed, owing to the retirement of owner Ralph Edwards.

The research required to update this guide is hot and sweaty. Sunburns, dehydration, and ice-cold ocean and river water often come with the territory, not to mention hidden rocks, slippery trails, and nudists who nag you about exposing their hidden hangouts. But somebody's got to do it.

That's where you come in.

Want to help improve our guide? Please send suggestions, new beach finds, better directions (especially road milepost numbers), and trip reports to garhan@aol.com or via snail mail to Gary Hanauer c/o San Francisco Bay Guardian, 135 Mississippi St., San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your phone number so we can check facts.

About the ratings: An A goes to places that are large or long established and where the crowd is mostly nude, a B to ones where fewer than half of the users are nude, a C to small or emerging nude areas, and a D to spots we recommend you avoid.

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