San Francisco:Publicity

From World Naked Bike Ride
Revision as of 10:14, 24 July 2012 by JamesAZaun (talk | contribs) (→‎June 9th Ride: Moved event summary from home page to here)
Jump to: navigation, search
Home > List of rides > US > San Francisco  > San Francisco:Publicity •  Google San Francisco:Publicity WNBR



San Francisco WNBR Header


This page contains press coverage of previous SF WNBR rides along with ride reports from some of the participants in these events.

2004

First SF World Naked Bike Ride

  • SF rides the first WNBR in 2004 with about 40 mostly male riders. We gathered at noon in the Embarcadero near the North end of Justin Herman Plaza (just North of the huge fountain with all of the cubic shapes) and head out at 1 PM along Market St to the Castro district. Did we ever stop for pictures? I dont think so. Who knew we were so beautiful?
  • SF Bay Area Indymedia, SF Naked Bike Ride Against Oil Dependency article by Eric Wagner, 12 June 2004
  • Basetree Photography, June 12, 2004 - Naked Bike Ride San Francisco photos by Eric, 12 June 2004

Bike ride to celebrate National Naked Awareness Day

  • Then in July we did it again! But this time, in celebration of Nat'l Naked Awareness Day, we were protected by a new group of the WNBR angels.
  • A few weeks later we got to teach the SF City District Attorney, and SFPD cop John Velasquez, about respect for the law when the SFPD cited 5 of the July riders group.

2005 SF WNBR

  • Area body painters ask to work on us, gratis.

2006 SF WNBR

2007 SF WNBR

2008 SF WNBR

2009 SF WNBR

  • At the 2009 event there were around 120 riders. We head out at 1 PM when the body painters have done their work.

We keep a steady pace heading almost to Golden Gate Park. We stop, rest and then turn around in SF's (Panhandle) to return to Embarcadero. We also stop and rest (and pose for photos) on the Polk St. steps of City Hall (there is usually some Saturday event going on in the Civic Center Park).

2010

Southern Hemisphere SF WNBR

Northern Hemisphere SF WNBR

2011

Southern Hemisphere SF WNBR

Just a short report on the March 12th ride. We had a sizable turnout, compared to last March, of 50 or more riders with a nice mix of genders and ages. It was a nice mellow group. Most of the riders went naked including several women despite the cold coastal breezes at times. When riding further from the coastline the weather was actually quite pleasant. This year we road traffic-heavy Van Ness Street, the main route to the Golden Gate Bridge. We received loads of smiles, laughs, thumbs ups, honks and cheers even when the group took up one entire lane of traffic. Most passengers in passing cars had their iPhones out taking pictures. The new route up and over Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, was much better than last June. Most riders were able to ride to the top without walking. All-and-all a very successful ride.

Special WNBR BP Oil Spill One-Year-Later Protest on April 20

The ride went back & forth on Embarcadero past Fisherman's Wharf, & stopping at the Ferry Building around 6:30. It was overcast, but minimal wind and no rain. With the weather uncertain, it was expected to be a small turnout, but a dozen people; riders, spectators and photographers were at the start at 4:00pm and a half dozen bared all in the plaza as KTVU Channel 2 filmed & prepared for a news release later aired on the Ten O'Clock News. See below.

  • The Morning Rush, Birthday Suit Bikers video April 21, 2011; (originally recorded and reported by KTVU Channel 2 on the 10 PM news, April 20, 2011).

Special Encore Earth Day SF WNBR on April 23

Only 6 riders showed up with roughly half being some of the better known Castro urban nudists. However, given that it was a last minute event put together only 4 days earlier, the turn out wasn't too bad. All six of us rode naked despite the cool, cloudy weather. The ride leader wore bright, florescent-green fishnet stockings in honor of Earth Day; another had No BP signs on his bike; and, another wore a silly hat; while the rest remained unadorned. We decided to head for the AT&T/Giants Stadium as the game was about to start (against the Braves).

Sure enough, there were huge crowds with lots of police doing crowd control. Despite our rather small contingent of all male riders, the 30 or so police we rode by allowed us to continue our naked celebration of Earth Day as long as we didn't linger too long in any one place. And, we got lots of cheers, smiles and laughs from the game crowd. We had a few bike problems along the way and lost one rider for awhile. We then headed towards Pier 39 but the cold breezes coming off the bay were too much for our unprotected bodies and we decided to call it quits after 2+ hours of riding.

Northern Hemisphere SF WNBR

2012

Southern Hemisphere SF WNBR

This year the turn out was equal to the previous year's June rides with 150-200 riders. We've only been doing it 3 years and it's already as big as the main ride. We had many repeat riders coming back to do it again. The gender mix was very good with several females riding in the nude. Probably the best gender balance we've had yet. All and all a very successful event with 4 times the turnout from last year.

2nd Annual Earth Day SF WNBR

Likewise, on our 2nd annual Earth Day ride we had 4 times as many riders as last year with ~24 riders. This year we went for a new starting location at a regular SF urban nudist hangout informally called the Buff Stop at Market and Castro. The area is also at the center of the LGBT community in SF. On the 1st leg we rode up Market to The Ferry building, then to Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and Aquatic Park, then back to the Ferry Building, across Embarcadero and down to 2nd & Townsend, then back to Red's Java House where we stopped and tested the no nudes, no service rule. Some of the group went in and succeeded in getting food (take out). The owner didn't mind and we even had a friendly chat. Then we went on to circle the Rincon Park and then took Howard to 11th then over to Folsom and back to the Ferry Building and up Market to the Earth Day Festival. We managed to get down the center of the arcade and back down the next aisle until a big black security guard told us we had to leave. Then the 5 remaining of us went over to Valencia at 18th and up Castro to the starting point at the Market/Castro corner. Several of the other riders were still there and the last of us left about 5:30.

Northern Hemisphere SF WNBRs

June 9th Ride

The June 9th ride grew in numbers over last year to about 140 riders, along with a large spectator turn out. A lot more spectators were taking pictures with iPads then we have ever seen before. There were more women riding completely naked, topless or in underwear which was a nice shift from the typical male:female ratio that rides like this often get. The SF WNBR received top billing on the FunCheap events list for that day. Someone said KGO radio promoted the event. NBC TV News and the Bay Guardian where there with reporters covering the event and doing interviews. Mitch Hightower of Hightower Productions also covered the ride at several points along the way. And, finally, we ended up doing a lengthy interview about the SF WNBR with a cinematographer doing a French film documentary on San Francisco. We'll provide more details about the ride in the coming days.

July 28th Ride

The be filled in after it happens...

Retrieved from "https://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco:Publicity&oldid=26960"