Seattle

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Next ride

Date: Saturday 10 June 2006 (Ride #4)
Time: (Tentative info) Bodypainting party probably 9AM-12PM, Leave Gas Works Park most likely shortly after High Noon (1st and easier part of ride), Arrive at Seattle Center probably between 12:20 PM and 12:45PM, leave Seattle Center International Fountain after 15-20 mins max. Second leg of ride begins once leaving the Seattle Center. Second leg will most likely arrive back at Gas Works Park around 3 or 4 PM (No guarantees! Bring a minimum to wear!).
Location: Probably starts at Gas Works Park (stay tuned for more info about other local bike rides!)

Get togethers/Meetings

Get together

WNBR founder Conrad Schmidt will be visiting Seattle on Saturday, April 22nd at 2:30 PM at Gas Works Park** (where we usually start WNBR). Conrad is currently producing a documentary on WNBR as an international event and will be shooting some footage in Seattle during his stop. He has requested to interview our team of volunteers and riders, so don't miss out!

General Meeting

Let's schedule a general WNBR Seattle meeting this month, sometime between April 14th and April 19th. Let me know what date, time and possible location would be good for you by replying to this e-mail address. I will be posting an agenda online for the meeting sometime soon on our Wiki site, feel free to let me know what aspects interest you. We are focusing on ramping up the level of artistic creativity this year before and during the ride! There are tons of different roles for everybody at all levels of involvement!! (Briefly you can look around at different city-level roles at http://nakedwiki.org/index.php/Roles - there will be added soon). We can also briefly discuss other super-shady upcoming events including the Summer Solstice Parade Ride, Body Pride Ride, info on the Hemp Ride/Fashion Show (a new event we are planning for August around Hempfest) and the Seafair Painted Torchlight Run (another new event we want to get off the ground this year). Note also that our planning will be done online on this Wiki website, so its not the end of the world if you cannot make a meeting. You can still have your input included online, but we'd prefer to meet with you face to face!

• • Please note the special WNBR meetup with Conrad Schmidt will be taking place about an hour and a half after a special Earth Day event: The NAC Discovery Beach Project Day on April 22 from 10AM - 1PM. This is a collaborative effort among many skinny-dippers in the Puget Sound area who want to move forward toward gaining sanctioned clothing-optional use of a beach in our region. Developing good relations with various agencies and site authorities is necessary step in this process. These beach cleanups not only help skinny-dippers to introduce themselves to city officials, but it gives us the opportunity to practice healthy ecological citizenship. And beach cleanups are fun!

It is important we get as many people as possible to get involved in these cleanup events as we can to show the City of Seattle that we are committed to the idea of clothing-optional beaches in Seattle. In March we had 21 brave volunteers face the cold and wind and participate in a clothed beach cleanup of South Beach. We collected a monster load of crapola, all were amazed of our collective efforts including our very friendly Discovery Park reps! We even got an amazing historical tour of the lighthouse, which is slated to become an educational facility for the city. Lets get even more involved for Earth Day! If you are interested, please e-mail Mark Storey, the project lead at [email protected] and he will send you details.

Contact

Feel free to contact organizer Daniel Johnson and the WNBR Seattle team by leaving a message at his discussion page.

Links

Website/s

• WNBR Seattle (official site)
• WNBR Seattle – videos (official site)

Discussion group/s

• WNBR Seattle Yahoo! group 3: general discussion
• WNBR Seattle Yahoo! group 2: announcements only

Location information

• Google map of Seattle
• Seattle Parks & Recreation page for Gas Works Park and directions
• Seattle Center Map and info on the International Fountain
• Group Health Bicycle Saturdays and Sundays A possible destination for leg three of WNBR Seattle 2006? Note that Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized traffic from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Wikipedia: Seattle
• Wikipedia: Washington

History

Seattle was the first US city to organize a ride. Daniel Johnson met with Conrad Schmidt after both participated in an Artists Against War/Artists for Peace/Work Less Party (AAW/AFP/WLP) Go As Bare as You Dare ride in Vancouver, BC. Conrad expressed interest in creating an international naked cycling event modeled after the rides in Vancouver and Daniel committed to having one in Seattle. The Seattle ride was inspired by the painted naked cyclists of the Summer Solstice Parade, the AAW/AFP/WLP Rides in Vancouver BC and Manifestación Ciclonudista in Spain.

Previous rides

• Saturday 12 June 2004: WNBR Seattle #1 Gas Works, Seattle Center International Fountain, Capital Hill
• Saturday 11 June 2005: WNBR Seattle #2 Gas Works, Denny Park, City Hall, Capital Hill
• Saturday 24 Sept 2005: WNBR Seattle #3 Autumnal Equinox Mini Ride from Myrtle Edwards Park to Discovery Park Beach

2005 notes

There were four naked bike rides in Seattle this year. Three of those occurred in three consecutive saturdays in June alone! The other two Seattle naked cycling events included the painted naked cyclists of the Fremont Solstice Parade (18 June, featuring about 160 riders!), and the premiere of the First Annual Body Pride Ride (BPR, read "beeper"), at the Seattle Pride March on 26 June (see Beeper Yahoo! group). So, with WNBR, that was three separate naked rides in three weeks!

In addition to ongoing monthly Critical Mass rides, 2005 marked the First Annual Independence From Oil Day Parade (3 July) and the emergence of the Ghostcycle project, raising awareness of cyclists on the streets with evocative installations around the city.

Photography and videography policy

The Seattle WNBR event has adopted a photography policy which

• Prohibits photography taking place close than 15 feet from subjects.
• Prohibits photography inside body painting tent areas without permission from those getting painted.

This policy is intended to curtail any inconsiderate photography which might otherwise take place. We wish to create a safe and supportive environment for all riders. All photographers present at the ride must abide by this policy. Those who do not will be asked to leave. This INCLUDES any riders or press who take photos.

To ensure that this policy is clear to all present, it will appear on leaflets distributed at the event. If you are attending the ride as a photographer, we would like to remind you that the there are various points along the route which feature particularly striking backgrounds for photos of the ride.

Photographers are encouraged to give out contact info on small cards to those who ask.

Riders and supporters are actively encouraged to enforce these policies.

Please report any problems with photographers to ride organizers.

If it makes you uncomfortable, let the photographers know that they don't have permission to photograph you. Keep in mind however that this is a public event and you are in a public park. That does not give people the right to be disrespectful or to harass you with their photography. Also, let other riders know this so they can tell photographers not to photograph you. Another approach is to keep your clothes on during the first bit of the ride, and take them off after you have left the assembly point. We recommend this approach too. Both of these approaches will cut down on photographs taken at the start of the ride, but it's not really possible to stop people from photographing during the ride.

WNBR local events often do have a documentary team taking pictures and video, but they are generally very considerate people and will try to keep your best wishes in mind as much as possible. You can see many of their images on this website and on WNBR-generated media, which is sometimes shared with other non-profit progressive groups.

There are also those who are at the event to use the images for other reasons, and you won't know without asking. If someone is being aggressive, acting suspiciously, or making you feel uncomfortable please tell a WNBR team coordinator or someone who can confront them and tell them to back off a bit and give people personal space. People need to understand the positive message of WNBR and understand that part of respecting each others' bodies is giving each other enough personal space to be comfortable, this is especially important for those that have never been naked in front of strangers or in public before. They have their own issues they are dealing with and aggressive gawking or unwanted exposure adds an additional unwanted complication to their experience. So speak up!