If you’ve always wanted to swim naked in the moonlight with a crowd of “goddesses,” your time is nearly here.
The annual “Naked Goddess Swim” will bring goddess-identified swimmers to Fire Station Dock #21 off of the Eastbank Esplanade at 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 20.
While the event is “inclusive,” according to organizers, it is “female-centric” and is billed as a celebration of “the female figure, in all its naked glory.”
Swimmers will arrive robed and wearing “glow-in-the-dark jewelry,” along with a required flotation device. Then, it will be time to disrobe and “wash your cares, insecurities, and self-imposed limitations away under the light of the full moon.”
The Naked Goddess Swim started in 2013 at Clackamas Cove at the confluence of the Clackamas and Willamette Rivers in Oregon City but moved to the Willamette in Portland in 2015 “due to algae concerns,” said Janie Malloy, a spokesperson for the swim.
Since then, the Naked Goddess Swim has been a fundraiser for Human Access Project, a Portland group that advocates for swimming in the Willamette River and recently helped open a new swimming dock at Cathedral Park in St. Johns.
“They don’t like algae either,” Malloy said, “and are doing something about it.”
The event usually has around 100 goddesses, Malloy said.
But, if you aren’t a goddess, don’t worry, you can participate in other ways. “Trusted Gentlemen and Gentlewomen” are needed to check swimmers in and out and to patrol the perimeter for interlopers and looky-loos.
The cost to first-time goddesses is $35, which includes a swim cap and a bag to hold their personal effects “while they frolic in the Willamette River in the dark of night, with the glow of city lights reflecting off the water.”
– Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com or @lizzzyacker
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