Before Speedos there was Skin

[Coach]

I went to high school during the final years of nude swimming in my district. From my Freshman to Junior year, boys were required to swim nude; they started allowing, but didn't require, swimsuits during my Senior year. The PE teachers never got in the pool and wore their regular PE uniforms during class. Our swim team coach swam nude during practice. Swimsuits were optional at swim meets when spectators were present. A few years after I graduated, they started requiring suits for boys.

I don't recall anyone ever complaining about the practice and swim classes were some of the most popular. The year they started allowing swimsuits, only the freshman showed up to swim class wearing them. Most of them were naked by the second or third class. At swim meets, about half the guys opted to swim nude. Some guys thought it helped them to swim faster.

Swimming nude was common, though rapidly disappearing, for men and boys at the time. The health club my family belonged to originally only allowed men, and nude swimming was required. It was coed when I was growing up, but nude swimming persisted. We'd go swimming once or twice a week, and my dad and I were always nude. Most of the men over 40 swam naked. It was a mix for those younger.

Nude swimming was common at people's homes too. We visited a few friends during the summer that had pools, and the men and boys always swam naked.

The school where I coach now is completely privately funded and, therefore, exempt from some regulations. It's a coed school, but swim classes are still separated by gender. They technically never took the nude swimming rules off the books. This was at the request of parents on the board who wanted to preserve the tradition. I was told by another teacher that it came up in a review at a meeting a few years back, but the parents' only protest was that it wasn't gender inclusive. They updated it to be gender neutral.

Generally speaking, students choose to wear swimsuits to swim class. New students often discover the rule when they forget their swimsuit. We don't provide backups, so they have the option to swim nude or lose credit for that day. In my experience, they always swim nude. Students familiar with the rule sometimes make a habit of "forgetting" their suits. A few of the seniors in my classes have dropped the pretense and simply swim nude.