Life as a naturist

Dermot Higgins (57) is a retired primary teacher and principal. He is also a naturist. From Skerries, he lives in Dunshaughlin with his partner, Paula. He has four children — Dermot (30), Oisin (28), Naoise (23) and Fionn (17)

I’ve always been an early riser, and my dad was the same. This morning, I woke at 5am. I don’t use an alarm clock. I’m at my best in the morning. I used to be a primary-school teacher, and then a principal in an Educate Together school. But I’m retired now. The day I retired, aged 55, I hopped on my bike and started cycling around the world. I did 32,000km — including India and Australia. I would cycle for 11 hours a day, reciting poetry in my head and just meditating on life. I was running away, and I didn’t know if I was going to come back. After many years of a good marriage, I was suddenly unhappy in the relationship. The world cycle was a life-changing experience.

Now I live in Dunshaughlin with my partner, Paula. I’ve just moved in with her. In the mornings, I have my porridge and coffee. I bring Paula a cup of tea in bed, and then I’m off for a swim. Up until recently, I had a little apartment in Skerries, but now I have a camper van, so I drive there to have a swim in sea. I’m a member of a group of men and women called the Frosties. We swim at a spot called the Captains in Skerries every day between 11am and 12.

I’ve always dabbled in sea-swimming, and my dad was a great sea-swimmer. He was the one who introduced me to it. He died from cancer aged 62, shortly after he retired. I’m nearly 62 now, and I feel that I’ve so much to do. His early death made me realise that life is short. Sea-swimming is my latest obsession. I plan to swim the Channel next year.

I have this thing that when I see a big stretch of water and there are no people around, I want to take off all my clothes and get in. That’s always been in me, ever since I was a kid. I never had any worries about being naked. I don’t take off my clothes to shock people.

The Frosties aren’t nude swimmers. They wear their togs. But even when it’s just men there, they have this awkward way of changing with the towel — they make sure they are covered all the time. There is a conservatism about exposing bodies. I think it’s because we are Irish and Catholic, and people make the mistake of confusing nudity with sex.

I was in the gym this morning, and there are doors on the showers there. I was shaving at the sink, standing there nude, but I didn’t see any other nude person. Even men are embarrassed to walk around naked.

I’m what I call a natural naturist. That means I feel naturally inclined to take my clothes off in different situations where it seems natural for me to do so, like swimming, sunbathing, in the changing room in the gym, and I sleep nude. I’d walk around the house nude if I could get away with it. My ex-wife was never happy with that, and my present partner is not jumping up and down about it, either.

Naturist holidays are not for me. I don’t see anything wrong with the people who do them, but going around supermarkets pushing trolleys and cycling around nude, that’s a different thing.

You are better off having something to pad your arse on a bike. It’s nothing to do with hygiene, but it just feels wrong to me to be going around the supermarket in your nude, and I think there should be a barrier between yourself and food.

The thing about naturism is that most people who do it don’t have perfect bodies. There are a lot of fat guys and a lot of hairy people, but they just don’t care. There is so much fuss about people getting ready for holidays — losing weight for the beach or getting the bikini line done. If you are a naturist, all that stuff goes out the window.

People think that there is something perverted about taking your clothes off and getting into the sea. Even people who I see as progressive and liberal, they are stuck in this way of thinking.

Someone told me about a women’s event in Wicklow called the Dip in the Nip, where they raised money for cancer. I thought that I’d organise a similar event for men for the Mater Foundation in aid of prostate cancer. And you also have this element of empowering men to be themselves.

The idea is that on November 9, men wear a dicky bow and nothing else, and swim in the sea. We are calling it the Dickie Dip. They have to sign up and there is no entry fee. It will be on a private beach and there won’t be anyone taking photos. We are capping it at 500 people, and we are confident that we will get 500 people.

Nudity is only a small part of my life but I remember how it started. The first holiday I ever went on was to Greece. It was 1979 and I had just left school. I remember waking up — I had slept in a hammock on a beach — I looked out and I saw people swimming naked. I’d never seen people swim naked before, and I thought it was amazing. I got in and I was swimming with them. It was a beautiful feeling, to feel the sun on all of your body, especially the parts that the sun doesn’t normally get to. It just felt right, but not sexual. There was a sensuality about it, and a feeling of liberation and feeling entirely yourself.

In the evenings, I like to sit by the fire and read. I’ve never watched a soap opera or reality TV. I might watch a film on Netflix with Paula. I like to go to bed at 10pm. I’ve always slept in the nude, even in winter, and I’m never cold. I was only in hospital once, and they made me wear pyjamas. It felt very strange because I hadn’t worn them since I was a kid.

“When you swim nude, there’s a great feeling of liberation. You feel entirely yourself ”