Hazards of outdoor recreation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazards_of_outdoor_recreation 

Outdoor recreation, such as hiking, camping, canoeing, cycling, or skiing, entails risks, even if participants do not recklessly place themselves in harm's way. In some circumstances, such as being in remote locations or in extreme weather conditions, even a minor accident may create a dangerous situation that requires survival skills. However, with correct precautions, even fairly adventurous outdoor recreation can be enjoyable and safe.

General safety measures

Every hazard has its own safety measure, and every ailment a particular remedy. A standard precaution for all back country activities is carrying the "ten essentials", a collection of tools chosen for their utility in preventing or reacting to various emergencies.

The common practice of traveling in a group improves safety in all regards. If one person is injured, group members can administer first aid or seek help. A group can avoid poor decisions that a lone traveler might make. If an emergency occurs, a group can pool its muscle power, brain power, and body heat.

Another precaution is informing people outside of the group of the itinerary and expected return time (expected hiking time can be estimated using Naismith's rule). A communication device, such as a cell phone or a satellite phone, may help in the case of an emergency. However, with the exception of mountain tops that are in line-of-sight to populated areas, cell phone coverage in wilderness areas is often quite poor. In the wilderness one should always be prepared to hike out for help, if necessary.

Dangerous circumstances

Inclement weather

Blizzards, flash floods, fog, dust or sandstorms, tornados, and other meteorological events may or may not be predictable, and may require immediate response for survival. Lightning is a frequent and serious threat in many regions.

Hazardous terrain

See also: Exposure (heights), Sure-footedness, and Head for heights

 

A crossing of the west flank of the Heiligkreuzkofel, South Tyrol requires a head for heights and sure-footedness in several places.

Backcountry avalanches are generally triggered by the immediate action of the party. Precautions include training, monitoring weather conditions to learn the history of the snow pack, digging hasty pits, modifying the route, passing one-by-one through dangerous areas, wearing avalanche beacons, and carrying avalanche probes and snow shovels. Other non-avalanche snow immersions can be similarly dangerous, including tree wells.

Other mass movements include icefalls, landslides, and rockfalls. When choosing a campsite care must be taken to avoid those along with dead trees, snags, trees with large dead branches, or trees that have previously been through a forest fire. Collectively, these are called "widowmakers" by experienced campers.

Slips may occur:

• On wet rocks or logs.
• When crossing streams, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, which can be dangerous due to poor visibility, uneven surfaces, smooth and algae or moss-covered rocks, and strong currents. The tops of waterfalls are especially dangerous because of fast moving water and smooth, slanted rocks. Rubber soles grip poorly on slime, compared to felt soles, crampons, or hob-nailed boots. Precautions include being aware of the danger, using hiking poles, loosening packs straps to lower gravity and in case of becoming submerged, and crossing with other people linked arm to arm or using a rope.
• Because of loose material. Loose gravel or scree on top of smooth rock acts like ball bearings. Precautions include spotting the situation ahead, keeping knees bent and weight forward, using hiking sticks, and brushing aside the gravel where possible.
• Ice

When travelling over glaciers, crevasses pose a grave danger. These giant cracks in the ice are not always visible, as snow can be blown and freeze over the top to make a snowbridge. At times snowbridges can be as thin as a few inches. Climbers and hikers use ropes to protect themselves from such hazards. Basic gear for glacier travel includes crampons and ice axes, and teams of two to five tie into a rope equally spaced. If someone begins to fall the other members of the team perform a self-arrest to stop the fall and then attempt a rescue.

Drownings are especially likely when accompanied by head injuries (which may render people unconscious), in very cold water (which can sap energy quickly), or in white water (which may be so frothy that it is impossible to float, or even swim, to the surface).

When walking beaches or crossing estuaries, it is essential to be aware of the tides.

Hazardous bystanders

Individuals encountered in the outdoors may not always be friendly and in some cases may pose a danger to outdoor recreationalists. These can take the case of robberies, sexual assault, or other attacks.

Losing the way

In some parks, hiking trails are clearly and accurately labeled.

Travelers may become lost, either if a group cannot find its way or if an individual becomes separated from the party and cannot find it again. Lost hikers who cannot find their way to their destination on time may run out of food and water, or experience a change in weather. The absence of clearly marked trails increases the risk of losing one's way.

If a group splits up into several subgroups moving at different speeds, one of the subgroups may take a wrong turn at a trail junction. A common procedure to avoid this is for the leaders to stop at junctions and wait for the others. Keeping the group together is important in the wilderness, especially when visibility is blocked due to weather, rocks, or trees.

Carrying a map and compass, and knowing how to use them, will decrease the risk of getting lost. Likewise, a Global Positioning System may prove invaluable, as it can pinpoint a traveler's location, revealing his exact position and the direction to roads, services, and inhabited areas. Most GPS devices can also be designed to mark one's path on a map, making it easy to backtrack. Family Radio Service, General Mobile Radio Service, and amateur radios operating on the "2 meters" band may help maintain communication. Flashing lights, signal mirrors, and whistles are low-tech emergency signals.

Without a distant focal point, such as a mountain top, or the sun or moon, people who are lost can sometimes wander in circles.

Specific accidents and ailments

See also: List of wilderness medical emergencies

Metabolic imbalances

Metabolic imbalances can affect general functioning and lead to other injuries.

• Dehydration can rapidly incapacitate an adventurer, especially in warm weather. In conditions of low humidity, sweat evaporates so quickly that a person may not notice the water loss. Carrying and drinking an adequate amount of water helps avoid dehydration. Depending on conditions, two liters of water may be enough for a day hike, but under hot conditions (such as hiking the Grand Canyon in summer), one liter per hour may be required. Naturally occurring water is often unfit to drink (see Potability of backcountry water).
• Sweating removes not only water, but also salt. This may result in a deficiency of sodium (hyponatremia). Eating salty snacks together with drinking water helps to avoid this problem.
• If deprived of food for several days, travelers may become malnourished. Malnutrition takes several weeks to kill a person, but because it impairs judgment, it can cause problems much sooner. Low blood sugar may have a similar effect, especially for those with diabetes. Carrying extra food will minimize risk to the hiker.
• Hypothermia is a potentially fatal drop in core body temperature. It occurs most easily in cold weather and when wet. Wet or damp clothing (due to rain, sweat, stream crossings, etc.) can bring it on even in relatively warm air, particularly at high elevation, windy conditions, or at low humidity. Even if hypothermia does not kill the victim directly it causes confusion, irrationality and impaired judgment, increasing the risk of other injuries. Sufficient clothing helps prevent hypothermia, but some materials (especially cotton) are discouraged because they absorb and hold water.
• Heat exhaustion, possibly developing into heatstroke, can occur in hot weather, particularly if one is dehydrated or dressed too warmly. The risk of heatstroke can be minimized by avoiding direct sun, and staying wet when possible. This is a life-threatening condition: a victim must be cooled off and transported to a hospital immediately.
• Altitude sickness results from climbing rapidly to elevations beyond 2,500 metres (approximately 8,000 feet). The process of acclimatization generally takes several days, but may be helped by drugs, such as Diamox. Acute mountain sickness (AMS) may develop into high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), both of which are life-threatening and require immediate transportation to a lower altitude.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning may occur in tents, igloos, cabins, or trailers due to faulty or misused equipment. It may also occur near the exhausts of motorboats, where the CO concentrations can be high enough to be quickly fatal.

Topical injuries

Overexposure to sunlight can result in sunburn.

• Frostbite can occur when bare skin is exposed to very low temperatures. Frostbite can be prevented by adequate clothing.
• Sunburn, which may occur in hot or cold conditions, can be debilitating. Sunburn may be prevented by wearing adequate sunscreen.
• Snow blindness, a burning of the cornea, is caused by the intense ultraviolet solar radiation multiplied by sunlit snow. Snow blindness may be prevented by wearing dark sunglasses or goggles.
• Burns can occur when dealing with camp stoves. Boiling pots are overturned, clogged fuel lines explode, hot metal is touched with bare skin. Burns are also caused by campfires, cookfires and bonfires.
• Lacerations may be caused by careless use of knives or axes, or contact with sharp rocks or barbed wire. Tetanus and other infections can result.
• Poisonous plants, such as poison ivy or stinging nettle (see list), cause rashes.
• Plant thorns and animal quills can cause deep puncture wounds, and can be difficult to remove, often requiring pliers.

Animals

Harmful encounters between animals and people can occur when animals try to get human food. Above a Black Bear is unsuccessful getting into backpacks because they are hung out of reach. Proper food storage protects both people and animals.

In many areas, adventurers may encounter large predatory animals such as bears or cougars. These animals rarely seek out humans as food, but they will attack under some conditions. Some hazardous encounters occur when animals raid human property for food. Additionally, if travelers come upon an unsuspecting animal and surprise it, it may attack. Regularly making loud noise, such as by clapping or yelling, reduces the risk of surprising an animal. Some people use bear bells as noisemakers, but these are usually too quiet to be heard from far away. Any mammal infected with rabies may behave unexpectedly, even aggressively, and could infect a human with rabies by biting.

Venomous animals, including snakes, scorpions, spiders and bees, may cause harm either directly or through anaphylactic shock. Overall, the greatest danger is often from insects, such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas, which carry communicable diseases.

Internal injuries

When combined with lack of proper physical conditioning, cumbersome backpacks increase the risk of missteps and falls, particularly on difficult terrain. Poor judgment due to exhaustion or inattention on steep or slippery slopes can also lead to injury.

• Ankle sprain is a common and debilitating injury. Proper hiking boots can help prevent it.
• Foot blisters are caused by friction and irritation of the skin. Wet socks and poorly fitting shoes precipitate the occurrence of blisters. Two layers of socks (using liner socks) help prevent blisters, and moleskin can be applied to blister-prone areas as a treatment or preventive measure.
• Back injury may result from packing more than one can carry or not having a proper backpack. A pack for backpacking should be bought from a recreational store, and as a rule of thumb, a person who is not overweight can comfortably carry up to one third of his or her body weight; however a backpack weighing more than 50 pounds (23 kg) should be avoided. Hiking poles may also reduce the likelihood of back injuries by spreading the load across multiple points. Care should be taken to lift and put on the pack with the least strain.

Digestive infections

Surface water in the wilderness can contain viruses, bacteria or parasites. The latter two can cause dysentery or wilderness diarrhea in untreated water and can be spread person-to-person by poor hygiene in camp. The most common cause of wilderness diarrhea is the parasite Giardia.

• Hazards of mountaineering
• Hazards in the Rocky Mountains

Crossing a crevasse on Easton Glacier, Mount Baker, United States

General safety measures

Every hazard has its own safety measure, and every ailment a particular remedy. A standard precaution for all back country activities is carrying the "ten essentials", a collection of tools chosen for their utility in preventing or reacting to various emergencies.

The common practice of traveling in a group improves safety in all regards. If one person is injured, group members can administer first aid or seek help. A group can avoid poor decisions that a lone traveler might make. If an emergency occurs, a group can pool its muscle power, brain power, and body heat.

Another precaution is informing people outside of the group of the itinerary and expected return time (expected hiking time can be estimated using Naismith's rule). A communication device, such as a cell phone or a satellite phone, may help in the case of an emergency. However, with the exception of mountain tops that are in line-of-sight to populated areas, cell phone coverage in wilderness areas is often quite poor. In the wilderness one should always be prepared to hike out for help, if necessary.

Dangerous circumstances

Inclement weather

Blizzards, flash floods, fog, dust or sandstorms, tornados, and other meteorological events may or may not be predictable, and may require immediate response for survival. Lightning is a frequent and serious threat in many regions.

Hazardous terrain

See also: Exposure (heights), Sure-footedness, and Head for heights

 

A crossing of the west flank of the Heiligkreuzkofel, South Tyrol requires a head for heights and sure-footedness in several places.

Backcountry avalanches are generally triggered by the immediate action of the party. Precautions include training, monitoring weather conditions to learn the history of the snow pack, digging hasty pits, modifying the route, passing one-by-one through dangerous areas, wearing avalanche beacons, and carrying avalanche probes and snow shovels. Other non-avalanche snow immersions can be similarly dangerous, including tree wells.

Other mass movements include icefalls, landslides, and rockfalls. When choosing a campsite care must be taken to avoid those along with dead trees, snags, trees with large dead branches, or trees that have previously been through a forest fire. Collectively, these are called "widowmakers" by experienced campers.

Slips may occur:

• On wet rocks or logs.
• When crossing streams, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, which can be dangerous due to poor visibility, uneven surfaces, smooth and algae or moss-covered rocks, and strong currents. The tops of waterfalls are especially dangerous because of fast moving water and smooth, slanted rocks. Rubber soles grip poorly on slime, compared to felt soles, crampons, or hob-nailed boots. Precautions include being aware of the danger, using hiking poles, loosening packs straps to lower gravity and in case of becoming submerged, and crossing with other people linked arm to arm or using a rope.
• Because of loose material. Loose gravel or scree on top of smooth rock acts like ball bearings. Precautions include spotting the situation ahead, keeping knees bent and weight forward, using hiking sticks, and brushing aside the gravel where possible.
• Ice

When travelling over glaciers, crevasses pose a grave danger. These giant cracks in the ice are not always visible, as snow can be blown and freeze over the top to make a snowbridge. At times snowbridges can be as thin as a few inches. Climbers and hikers use ropes to protect themselves from such hazards. Basic gear for glacier travel includes crampons and ice axes, and teams of two to five tie into a rope equally spaced. If someone begins to fall the other members of the team perform a self-arrest to stop the fall and then attempt a rescue.

Drownings are especially likely when accompanied by head injuries (which may render people unconscious), in very cold water (which can sap energy quickly), or in white water (which may be so frothy that it is impossible to float, or even swim, to the surface).

When walking beaches or crossing estuaries, it is essential to be aware of the tides.

Hazardous bystanders

Individuals encountered in the outdoors may not always be friendly and in some cases may pose a danger to outdoor recreationalists. These can take the case of robberies, sexual assault, or other attacks.

Losing the way

In some parks, hiking trails are clearly and accurately labeled.

Travelers may become lost, either if a group cannot find its way or if an individual becomes separated from the party and cannot find it again. Lost hikers who cannot find their way to their destination on time may run out of food and water, or experience a change in weather. The absence of clearly marked trails increases the risk of losing one's way.

If a group splits up into several subgroups moving at different speeds, one of the subgroups may take a wrong turn at a trail junction. A common procedure to avoid this is for the leaders to stop at junctions and wait for the others. Keeping the group together is important in the wilderness, especially when visibility is blocked due to weather, rocks, or trees.

Carrying a map and compass, and knowing how to use them, will decrease the risk of getting lost. Likewise, a Global Positioning System may prove invaluable, as it can pinpoint a traveler's location, revealing his exact position and the direction to roads, services, and inhabited areas. Most GPS devices can also be designed to mark one's path on a map, making it easy to backtrack. Family Radio Service, General Mobile Radio Service, and amateur radios operating on the "2 meters" band may help maintain communication. Flashing lights, signal mirrors, and whistles are low-tech emergency signals.

Without a distant focal point, such as a mountain top, or the sun or moon, people who are lost can sometimes wander in circles.

Specific accidents and ailments

See also: List of wilderness medical emergencies

Metabolic imbalances

Metabolic imbalances can affect general functioning and lead to other injuries.

• Dehydration can rapidly incapacitate an adventurer, especially in warm weather. In conditions of low humidity, sweat evaporates so quickly that a person may not notice the water loss. Carrying and drinking an adequate amount of water helps avoid dehydration. Depending on conditions, two liters of water may be enough for a day hike, but under hot conditions (such as hiking the Grand Canyon in summer), one liter per hour may be required. Naturally occurring water is often unfit to drink (see Potability of backcountry water).
• Sweating removes not only water, but also salt. This may result in a deficiency of sodium (hyponatremia). Eating salty snacks together with drinking water helps to avoid this problem.
• If deprived of food for several days, travelers may become malnourished. Malnutrition takes several weeks to kill a person, but because it impairs judgment, it can cause problems much sooner. Low blood sugar may have a similar effect, especially for those with diabetes. Carrying extra food will minimize risk to the hiker.
• Hypothermia is a potentially fatal drop in core body temperature. It occurs most easily in cold weather and when wet. Wet or damp clothing (due to rain, sweat, stream crossings, etc.) can bring it on even in relatively warm air, particularly at high elevation, windy conditions, or at low humidity. Even if hypothermia does not kill the victim directly it causes confusion, irrationality and impaired judgment, increasing the risk of other injuries. Sufficient clothing helps prevent hypothermia, but some materials (especially cotton) are discouraged because they absorb and hold water.
• Heat exhaustion, possibly developing into heatstroke, can occur in hot weather, particularly if one is dehydrated or dressed too warmly. The risk of heatstroke can be minimized by avoiding direct sun, and staying wet when possible. This is a life-threatening condition: a victim must be cooled off and transported to a hospital immediately.
• Altitude sickness results from climbing rapidly to elevations beyond 2,500 metres (approximately 8,000 feet). The process of acclimatization generally takes several days, but may be helped by drugs, such as Diamox. Acute mountain sickness (AMS) may develop into high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), both of which are life-threatening and require immediate transportation to a lower altitude.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning may occur in tents, igloos, cabins, or trailers due to faulty or misused equipment. It may also occur near the exhausts of motorboats, where the CO concentrations can be high enough to be quickly fatal.

Topical injuries

Overexposure to sunlight can result in sunburn.

• Frostbite can occur when bare skin is exposed to very low temperatures. Frostbite can be prevented by adequate clothing.
• Sunburn, which may occur in hot or cold conditions, can be debilitating. Sunburn may be prevented by wearing adequate sunscreen.
• Snow blindness, a burning of the cornea, is caused by the intense ultraviolet solar radiation multiplied by sunlit snow. Snow blindness may be prevented by wearing dark sunglasses or goggles.
• Burns can occur when dealing with camp stoves. Boiling pots are overturned, clogged fuel lines explode, hot metal is touched with bare skin. Burns are also caused by campfires, cookfires and bonfires.
• Lacerations may be caused by careless use of knives or axes, or contact with sharp rocks or barbed wire. Tetanus and other infections can result.
• Poisonous plants, such as poison ivy or stinging nettle (see list), cause rashes.
• Plant thorns and animal quills can cause deep puncture wounds, and can be difficult to remove, often requiring pliers.

Animals

Harmful encounters between animals and people can occur when animals try to get human food. Above a Black Bear is unsuccessful getting into backpacks because they are hung out of reach. Proper food storage protects both people and animals.

In many areas, adventurers may encounter large predatory animals such as bears or cougars. These animals rarely seek out humans as food, but they will attack under some conditions. Some hazardous encounters occur when animals raid human property for food. Additionally, if travelers come upon an unsuspecting animal and surprise it, it may attack. Regularly making loud noise, such as by clapping or yelling, reduces the risk of surprising an animal. Some people use bear bells as noisemakers, but these are usually too quiet to be heard from far away. Any mammal infected with rabies may behave unexpectedly, even aggressively, and could infect a human with rabies by biting.

Venomous animals, including snakes, scorpions, spiders and bees, may cause harm either directly or through anaphylactic shock. Overall, the greatest danger is often from insects, such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas, which carry communicable diseases.

Internal injuries

When combined with lack of proper physical conditioning, cumbersome backpacks increase the risk of missteps and falls, particularly on difficult terrain. Poor judgment due to exhaustion or inattention on steep or slippery slopes can also lead to injury.

• Ankle sprain is a common and debilitating injury. Proper hiking boots can help prevent it.
• Foot blisters are caused by friction and irritation of the skin. Wet socks and poorly fitting shoes precipitate the occurrence of blisters. Two layers of socks (using liner socks) help prevent blisters, and moleskin can be applied to blister-prone areas as a treatment or preventive measure.
• Back injury may result from packing more than one can carry or not having a proper backpack. A pack for backpacking should be bought from a recreational store, and as a rule of thumb, a person who is not overweight can comfortably carry up to one third of his or her body weight; however a backpack weighing more than 50 pounds (23 kg) should be avoided. Hiking poles may also reduce the likelihood of back injuries by spreading the load across multiple points. Care should be taken to lift and put on the pack with the least strain.

Digestive infections

Surface water in the wilderness can contain viruses, bacteria or parasites. The latter two can cause dysentery or wilderness diarrhea in untreated water and can be spread person-to-person by poor hygiene in camp. The most common cause of wilderness diarrhea is the parasite Giardia.

Outdoor recreation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outdoor_recreation 

 

Camping in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India

Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activities can include fishing, hunting, backpacking, and horseback riding — and can be completed individually or collectively. Outdoor recreation is a broad concept that encompasses a varying range of activities and landscapes.

Outdoor recreation is typically pursued for purposes of physical exercise, general wellbeing, and spiritual renewal. While a wide variety of outdoor recreational activities can be classified as sports, they do not all demand that a participant be an athlete. Rather, it is the collectivist idea that is at the fore in outdoor recreation, as outdoor recreation does not necessarily encompass the same degree of competitiveness or rivalry that is embodied in sporting matches or championships. Competition generally is less stressed than in organized individual or team sports. When the activity involves exceptional excitement, physical challenge, or risk, it is sometimes referred to as "adventure recreation" or "adventure training", rather than an extreme sport.

Other traditional examples of outdoor recreational activities include hiking, camping, mountaineering, cycling, dog walking, canoeing, caving, kayaking, rafting, rock climbing, running, sailing, skiing, sky diving and surfing. As new pursuits, often hybrids of prior ones, emerge, they gain their own identities, such as coasteering, canyoning, fastpacking, and plogging.

Lungomare of Barcola in Trieste in the direction Miramare Castle, a place for urban outdoor recreation

In many cities, recreational areas for various outdoor activities are created for the population. These include natural parks, parks, playgrounds, sports facilities but also areas with free sea access such as the beach area of Venice Beach in California, the Promenade des Anglais in Nice or the waterfront of Barcola in Trieste.

Purpose

Whitewater rafting

Outdoor recreation involves any kind of activity within an outdoor environment. Outdoor recreation can include established sports, and individuals can participate without association with teams, competitions or clubs. Activities include backpacking, canoeing, canyoning, caving, climbing, hiking, hill walking, hunting, kayaking, and rafting. Broader groupings include water sports, snow sports, and horseback riding.

People engage in physical activity outdoors as a form of recreation. Various physical activities can be completed individually or communally. Sports which are mainly played indoors or other settings such as fields are able to transition to an outdoor setting for recreational and non-competitive purposes. Outdoor physical activities can help people learn new skills, test stamina and endurance, and participate in social activities.

Outdoor activities are also frequently used as a setting for education and team building.

List of activities

Mountain biker in Levin, New Zealand

• Abseiling
• Adventure park
• Airsoft
• All-terrain vehicle riding
• Amusement park
• Angling
• Aviation
• Backpacking
• BASE jumping
• Benchmarking (geolocating)
• Birdwatching
• Bungee jumping
• Camping
• Canoeing
• Canyoning
• Caving
• Clam digging
• Coasteering
• Cold-weather biking
• Corn maze
• Cross-country skiing
• Cycling
• Disc golf
• Dog park
• Driving
• Fitness trail
• Fly fishing
• Gardening
• Geocaching
• Gliding
• Grilling
• Hang gliding
• Hiking
• Horseback riding
• Hot air ballooning
• Hunting
• Ice climbing
• Ice fishing
• Ice skating
• Jetskiing
• Kayaking
• Letterboxing
• Metal detecting
• Mountain biking
• Mountain climbing
• Mountaineering
• Mushroom hunting
• Nordic walking
• Off-roading
• Orienteering
• Outdoor fitness
• Outdoor gym
• Paintball
• Paragliding
• Parasailing
• Outdoor party
• Photography
• Picnic
• Plogging
• Paramotoring
• Rafting
• Rappelling
• Rock climbing
• Running
• Safari park
• Safari
• Sandboarding
• Scuba diving
• Seatrekking
• Sightseeing
• Skateboarding
• Skiing
• Sport fishing
• Skydiving
• Skyrunning
• Sledding
• Snorkeling
• Snowboarding
• Snowmobiling
• Snowshoeing
• Standup paddleboarding
• Sunbathing
• Surfing
• Swimming
• Tombstoning
• Tourism
• Tree climbing
• Trekking
• Urban exploration
• Water sports
• Waterskiing
• Windsurfing
• Wingsuit flying
• Winter swimming
• Zip line

Examples

Trekking

Trekkers in Gorbea park, south of Biscay in Basque Country, Spain

Trekking can be understood as an extended walk and involves day hikes, overnight or extended hikes. An example of a day trek is hiking during the day and returning at night to a lodge for a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Physical preparation for trekking includes cycling, swimming, jogging and long walks. Trekking requires experience with basic survival skills, first aid, and orienteering when going for extended hikes or staying out overnight.

Mountain biking

The activity of mountain biking involves steering a mountain cycle over rocky tracks and around boulder-strewn paths. Mountain bikes or ATBs (all-terrain bikes) feature a rugged frame and fork. Their frames are often built of aluminum so they are lightweight and stiff, making them efficient to ride.

Many styles of mountain biking are practiced, including all mountain, downhill, trials, dirt jumping, trail riding, and cross country. The latter two are the most common.

Balance, core strength, and endurance are all physical traits that are required to go mountain biking. Riders also need bike handling skills and the ability to make basic repairs to their bikes. More advanced mountain biking involves technical descents such as down hilling and free riding.

Canyoning

Canyoning at Sundarijal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Canyoning is an activity which involves climbing, descending, jumping and trekking through canyons. The sport originates from caving and involves both caving and climbing techniques. Canyoning often includes descents that involve rope work, down-climbing, or jumps that are technical in nature. Canyoning is frequently done in remote and rugged settings and often requires navigational, route-finding and other wilderness skills.

Education

Main article: Outdoor education

Outdoor education in the United States

Education is also a popular focus of outdoor activity. University outdoor recreation programs are becoming more popular in the United States. Studies have show that outdoor recreation programs can be beneficial to a students well-being and stress levels in terms of calming and soothing the mind. Universities in the United States often offer indoor rock climbing walls, equipment rental, ropes courses and trip programming. A few universities give degrees in adventure recreation, which aims to teach graduates how to run businesses in the field of adventure recreation.

Outdoor education in the United Kingdom

In the UK, the house of commons' Education and Skills Committee supports outdoor education. The committee encourages fieldwork projects since it helps in the development of ‘soft’ skills and social skills, particularly in hard to reach children. These activities can also take place on school trips, on visits in the local community or even on the school grounds.

Outdoor enthusiast

Theodore Roosevelt was a noted outdoorsman, conservationist, and big-game hunter

 

Author and sportsman Ernest Hemingway was a record-holding trophy fisherman, seen here with several marlins caught on a trip to Bimini in 1935

Outdoor enthusiast and outdoorsy are terms for a person who enjoys outdoor recreation. The terms outdoorsman, sportsman, woodsman, or bushman have also been used to describe someone with an affinity for the outdoors.

Some famous outdoor enthusiasts include U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt, Robert Baden-Powell, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Mears, Bear Grylls, Doug Peacock, Richard Wiese, Kenneth "Speedy" Raulerson, Earl Shaffer, Jo Gjende, Saxton Pope, Randy Stoltmann, Christopher Camuto, Eva Shockey, Jim Shockey, Henry Pittock, Eddie Bauer, Gaylord DuBois, Euell Gibbons, Clay Perry, Arthur Hasketh Groom, Bill Jordan, and Corey Ford. Some pioneering female outdoor enthusiasts include Mary Seacole, Isabella Bird, Emma Rowena Gatewood, Claire Marie Hodges, Mina Benson Hubbard, Beryl Markham, Freya Stark, Margaret Murie, Celia Hunter, Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, and Arlene Blum.

Sparsely populated areas with mountains, lakes, rivers, scenic views, and rugged terrain are popular with outdoor enthusiasts. In the United States, state parks and national parks offer campgrounds and opportunities for recreation of the sort. In the UK, all of rural Scotland and all those areas of England and Wales designated as "right to roam" areas are available for outdoor enthusiasts on foot. Some areas are also open to mountain bikers and to horse riders.

Outdoor recreation and cuisine

Culinary techniques and foods popular with outdoor enthusiasts include dutch ovens, grilling, cooking over "open fires" (often with rock fire rings), fish fries, granola, and trail mix (sometimes referred to as GORP for "good old raisins and peanuts").

International and National Outdoor Recreation Days

Nationally and internationally, a number of days have been designated for the outdoors.

• Canadian Rivers Day
• National Cleanup Day
• National Public Lands Day
• National Trails Day
• World Oceans Day
• Global Running Day

Synonyms

BBC uses the word «free-luftz-leev» as a synonym for outdoor recreation in Scandinavia.

Leisure

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure 

 

Public parks were initially set aside for leisure, recreation and sport.

 

A man relaxing on a couch

 

Leisure time swimming at an oasis

Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure as an experience usually emphasizes dimensions of perceived freedom and choice. It is done for "its own sake", for the quality of experience and involvement. Other classic definitions include Thorsten Veblen's (1899) of "nonproductive consumption of time." Free time is not easy to define due to the multiplicity of approaches used to determine its essence. Different disciplines have definitions reflecting their common issues: for example, sociology on social forces and contexts and psychology as mental and emotional states and conditions. From a research perspective, these approaches have an advantage of being quantifiable and comparable over time and place.

Leisure studies and sociology of leisure are the academic disciplines concerned with the study and analysis of leisure. Recreation differs from leisure in that it is a purposeful activity that includes the experience of leisure in activity contexts. Economists consider that leisure times are valuable to a person like wages that they could earn for the same time spend towards the activity. If it were not, people would have worked instead of taking leisure. However, the distinction between leisure and unavoidable activities is not a rigidly defined one, e.g. people sometimes do work-oriented tasks for pleasure as well as for long-term utility. A related concept is social leisure, which involves leisurely activities in social settings, such as extracurricular activities, e.g. sports, clubs. Another related concept is that of family leisure. Relationships with others is usually a major factor in both satisfaction and choice.

The concept of leisure as a human right was realised in article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

History

Leisure has historically been the privilege of the upper class. Opportunities for leisure came with more money, or organization, and less working time, rising dramatically in the mid-to-late 19th century, starting in Great Britain and spreading to other rich nations in Europe. It spread as well to the United States, although that country had a reputation in Europe for providing much less leisure despite its wealth. Immigrants to the United States discovered they had to work harder than they did in Europe. Economists continue to investigate why Americans work longer hours. In a recent book, Laurent Turcot argues that leisure was not created in the 19th century but is imbricated in the occidental world since the beginning of history.

Canada

In Canada, leisure in the country is related to the decline in work hours and is shaped by moral values, and the ethnic-religious and gender communities. In a cold country with winter's long nights, and summer's extended daylight, favorite leisure activities include horse racing, team sports such as hockey, singalongs, roller skating and board games. The churches tried to steer leisure activities, by preaching against drinking and scheduling annual revivals and weekly club activities. By 1930 radio played a major role in uniting Canadians behind their local or regional hockey teams. Play-by-play sports coverage, especially of ice hockey, absorbed fans far more intensely than newspaper accounts the next day. Rural areas were especially influenced by sports coverage.

France

Leisure by the mid-19th century was no longer an individualistic activity. It was increasingly organized. In the French industrial city of Lille, with a population of 80,000 in 1858, the cabarets or taverns for the working class numbered 1300, or one for every three houses. Lille counted 63 drinking and singing clubs, 37 clubs for card players, 23 for bowling, 13 for skittles, and 18 for archery. The churches likewise have their social organizations. Each club had a long roster of officers, and a busy schedule of banquets, festivals and competitions.

United Kingdom

A caricature of upper class Victorian tourists, 1852

As literacy, wealth, ease of travel, and a broadened sense of community grew in Britain from the mid-19th century onward, there was more time and interest in leisure activities of all sorts, on the part of all classes.

Opportunities for leisure activities increased because real wages continued to grow and hours of work continued to decline. In urban Britain, the nine-hour day was increasingly the norm; the 1874 Factory Act limited the workweek to 56.5 hours. The movement toward an eight-hour day. Furthermore, system of routine annual vacations came into play, starting with white-collar workers and moving into the working-class. Some 200 seaside resorts emerged thanks to cheap hotels and inexpensive railway fares, widespread banking holidays and the fading of many religious prohibitions against secular activities on Sundays.

By the late Victorian era, the leisure industry had emerged in all British cities, and the pattern was copied across Western Europe and North America. It provided scheduled entertainment of suitable length and convenient locales at inexpensive prices. These include sporting events, music halls, and popular theater. By 1880 football was no longer the preserve of the social elite, as it attracted large working-class audiences. Average gate was 5,000 in 1905, rising to 23,000 in 1913. That amounted to 6 million paying customers with a weekly turnover of £400,000. Sports by 1900 generated some three percent of the total gross national product in Britain. Professionalization of sports was the norm, although some new activities reached an upscale amateur audience, such as lawn tennis and golf. Women were now allowed in some sports, such as archery, tennis, badminton and gymnastics.

Leisure was primarily a male activity, with middle-class women allowed in at the margins. There were class differences with upper-class clubs, and working-class and middle-class pubs. Heavy drinking declined; there was more betting on outcomes. Participation in sports and all sorts of leisure activities increased for average English people, and their interest in spectator sports increased dramatically.

By the 1920s the cinema and radio attracted all classes, ages, and genders in very large numbers. Giant palaces were built for the huge audiences that wanted to see Hollywood films. In Liverpool 40 percent of the population attended one of the 69 cinemas once a week; 25 percent went twice. Traditionalists grumbled about the American cultural invasion, but the permanent impact was minor.

The British showed a more profound interest in sports, and in greater variety, that any rival. They gave pride of place to such moral issues as sportsmanship and fair play. Cricket became symbolic of the Imperial spirit throughout the Empire. Soccer proved highly attractive to the urban working classes, which introduced the rowdy spectator to the sports world. In some sports, there was significant controversy in the fight for amateur purity especially in rugby and rowing. New games became popular almost overnight, including golf, lawn tennis, cycling and hockey. Women were much more likely to enter these sports than the old established ones. The aristocracy and landed gentry, with their ironclad control over land rights, dominated hunting, shooting, fishing and horse racing.

Cricket had become well-established among the English upper class in the 18th century, and was a major factor in sports competition among the public schools. Army units around the Empire had time on their hands, and encouraged the locals to learn cricket so they could have some entertaining competition. Most of the Empire embraced cricket, with the exception of Canada. Cricket test matches (international) began by the 1870s; the most famous is that between Australia and Britain for "The Ashes".

Types

The range of leisure activities extends from the very informal and casual to highly organised and long-lasting activities. A significant subset of leisure activities are hobbies which are undertaken for personal satisfaction, usually on a regular basis, and often result in satisfaction through skill development or recognised achievement, sometimes in the form of a product. The list of hobbies is ever changing as society changes.

Substantial and fulfilling hobbies and pursuits are described by Sociologist Robert Stebbins as serious leisure. The serious leisure perspective is a way of viewing the wide range of leisure pursuits in three main categories: casual leisure, serious leisure, and project-based leisure.

Serious leisure

"Serious leisure is the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer ... that is highly substantial, interesting, and fulfilling and where ... participants find a [leisure] career...". For example, collecting stamps or maintaining a public wetland area.

People undertaking serious leisure can be categorised as amateurs, volunteers or hobbyists. Their engagement is distinguished from casual leisure by a high level of perseverance, effort, knowledge and training required and durable benefits and the sense that one can create in effect a leisure career through such activity.

The range of serious leisure activities is growing rapidly in modern times with developed societies having greater leisure time, longevity and prosperity. The Internet is providing increased support for amateurs and hobbyists to communicate, display and share products.

Reading

As literacy and leisure time expanded after 1900, reading became a popular pastime. New additions to adult fiction doubled during the 1920s, reaching 2800 new books a year by 1935. Libraries tripled their stocks, and saw heavy demand for new fiction. A dramatic innovation was the inexpensive paperback, pioneered by Allen Lane (1902–70) at Penguin Books in 1935. The first titles included novels by Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie. They were sold cheap (usually sixpence) in a wide variety of inexpensive stores such as Woolworth's. Penguin aimed at an educated middle class "middlebrow" audience. It avoided the downscale image of American paperbacks. The line signaled cultural self-improvement and political education. The more polemical Penguin Specials, typically with a leftist orientation for Labour readers, were widely distributed during World War II. However the war years caused a shortage of staff for publishers and book stores, and a severe shortage of rationed paper, worsened by the air raid on Paternoster Square in 1940 that burned 5 million books in warehouses.

Romantic fiction was especially popular, with Mills and Boon the leading publisher. Romantic encounters were embodied in a principle of sexual purity that demonstrated not only social conservatism, but also how heroines could control their personal autonomy. Adventure magazines became quite popular, especially those published by DC Thomson; the publisher sent observers around the country to talk to boys and learn what they wanted to read about. The story line in magazines and cinema that most appealed to boys was the glamorous heroism of British soldiers fighting wars that were perceived as exciting and just.

Casual leisure

"Casual leisure is immediately, intrinsically rewarding; and it is a relatively short-lived, pleasurable activity requiring little or no special training to enjoy it." For example, watching TV or going for a swim.

Project-based leisure

"Project-based leisure is a short-term, moderately complicated, either one-shot or occasional, though infrequent, creative undertaking carried out in free time." For example, working on a single Wikipedia article or building a garden feature.

Cultural differences

GI Card Game, watercolor by James Pollock, U. S. Army Vietnam Combat Artists Team IV (CAT IV 1967). During the Vietnam War soldiers waiting to go on patrol would sometimes spend their leisure time playing cards. Courtesy National Museum of the United States Army.

Time available for leisure varies from one society to the next, although anthropologists have found that hunter-gatherers tend to have significantly more leisure time than people in more complex societies. As a result, band societies such as the Shoshone of the Great Basin came across as extraordinarily lazy to European colonialists.

Workaholics, less common than the social myths, are those who work compulsively at the expense of other activities. They prefer to work rather than spend time socializing and engaging in other leisure activities.

European and American men statistically have more leisure time than women, due to both household and parenting responsibilities and increasing participation in the paid employment. In Europe and the United States, adult men usually have between one and nine hours more leisure time than women do each week.

Family leisure

Family leisure is defined as time that parents, children and siblings spend together in free time or recreational activities, and it can be expanded to address intergenerational family leisure as time that grandparents, parents, and grandchildren spend together in free time or recreational activities. Leisure can become a central place for the development of emotional closeness and strong family bonds. Contexts such as urban/rural shape the perspectives, meanings, and experiences of family leisure. For example, leisure moments are part of work in rural areas, and the rural idyll is enacted by urban families on weekends, but both urban and rural families somehow romanticize rural contexts as ideal spaces for family making (connection to nature, slower and more intimate space, notion of a caring social fabric, tranquillity, etc.). Also, much "family leisure" requires tasks that are most often assigned to women. Family leisure also includes playing together with family members on the weekend day.

Aging

Leisure is important across the lifespan and can facilitate a sense of control and self-worth. Older adults, specifically, can benefit from physical, social, emotional, cultural, and spiritual aspects of leisure. Leisure engagement and relationships are commonly central to "successful" and satisfying aging. For example, engaging in leisure with grandchildren can enhance feelings of generativity, whereby older adults can achieve well-being by leaving a legacy beyond themselves for future generations.

Nudity in religion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity_in_religion 

Nudity in religion deals with the differing attitudes to nudity and modesty among world religions.

Ancient Greek religion

Statue of Aphrodite of Milos, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, (c. 100 BC), Louvre

Hesiod, the writer of the poem Theogony, which describes the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods in Ancient Greek religion, suggested that farmers should "Sow naked, and plough naked, and harvest naked, if you wish to bring in all Demeter's fruits in due season." Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth.

Although most ceremony and traditions involve dressing up, often with some preferential attire, certain cultural or religious traditions actually prescribed ritual nudity. For example, ancient Sparta held a yearly celebration from 668 BC called gymnopaedia during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of war dancing.

Abrahamic religions

The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recount the legend of the Garden of Eden, found in the Hebrew Bible, in which Adam and Eve are unaware of their nakedness until they eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. After this, they feel ashamed and try to cover themselves with fig leaves. Judaism does not share the Christian association of nakedness with original sin, an aspect integral to the doctrine of redemption and salvation. In Islam the garden is in Paradise, not on Earth. This is to show that women and men should be covered in clothing, for nudity has the stigma of shame attached to it. Each of these religions has its own unique understanding of what is meant to be taught with the recounting of the story of Adam and Eve.

Judaism

See also: Tzniut

In Judaism, nudity is an aspect of body modesty which is regarded as very important in most social and familial situations. Attitudes to modesty vary between the different movements within Judaism as well as between communities within each movement. In more strict (orthodox) communities, modesty is an aspect of Tzniut which generally has detailed rules of what is appropriate behaviour. Conservative and Reform Judaism generally promote modesty values but do not regard the strict Tzniut rules as binding, with each person being permitted (at least in principle) to set their own standards. With the exception of the Haredi community, Jewish communities generally tend to dress according to the standards of the society in which they find themselves.

A person who enters a ritual bath (a mikveh) does so without clothing, and with no jewelry or even bandages.

Care needs to be taken when reading the Bible, where some references to nakedness serve as a euphemism for intimate sexual behaviour. For example, in the story of Noah the hesitancy of two of Noah's sons when they have to cover their father's nakedness can be seen, averting their eyes, after Noah's youngest son "saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside" what he had done to his father. Nakedness may also be a metaphor for empty-handedness, specifically in situations where a sacrifice or offering to God is expected.

Christianity

Mainstream Christian denominations

Representation of baptism in early Christian art

 

Baptism of Clovis I (496)

There are verses in the Christian Bible that discuss the issue of nudity. Before the fall of man, "Nakedness was 'very good' from the beginning, but its innocence was corrupted by the fall", a concept taught in Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 2:25. Genesis 3:8–10, Revelation 3:18 and Revelation 16:15 discuss that after the fall of man, "publicly exposed nakedness [became] a symbol of the shame of sin." In Genesis 3:7, Adam and Eve tried to cover their nakedness, though their attempt was inadequate for God and so God properly clothed humans in Genesis 3:21. Exodus 20:26 and 28:42–43 explicate that God instructed humans to cover their torso and thighs.

The early Church reflected the contemporary attitudes of Judaism towards nudity. The Old Testament is not positive towards nudity. In Isaiah 20, Isaiah walks nude as a sign of shame.

The first recorded liturgy of baptism, written down by Saint Hippolytus of Rome in his Apostolic Tradition, required men, women and children to remove all clothing, including all foreign objects such as jewellery and hair fastenings. However Laurie Guy argues that complete nudity for baptism candidates (especially women) would not be the norm. He notes that at certain times and in certain places candidates may have been totally naked at the point of baptism, but the Jewish taboo of female nakedness would have mitigated widespread practice of naked baptism.

Later Christian attitudes to nudity became more restrictive, and baptisms were segregated by sex and then later were usually performed with clothed participants. Some of the Eastern Orthodox churches today maintain the early church's liturgical use of baptismal nudity, particularly for infants but also for adults.

Several saints, such as a number of the Desert Fathers as well as Basil Fool for Christ, practiced nudity as a form of ascetic poverty.

Early Christian art included depictions of nudity in baptism. When artistic endeavours revived following the Renaissance, the Catholic Church was a major sponsor of art bearing a religious theme, many of which included subjects in various states of dress and including full nudity. Painters sponsored by the Church included Raphael, Caravaggio and Michelangelo, but there were many others. Many of these paintings and statues were and continue to be displayed in churches, some of which were painted as murals, the most famous of which are at the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.

Smith (1966), in discussing logion 37 of the Gospel of Thomas, notes that early Christian art depicts, as one would expect, Adam and Eve in Paradise naked. The only other Old Testament figures who are depicted nude are Jonah emerging from the mouth of the Great Fish, Daniel emerging from the Lion's Den, and the resurrected in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones: these Old Testament scenes containing nude figures are precisely those which were held to be types of the resurrection. Among the New Testament illustrations, apart from baptismal scenes, there are nudes only in one representation of the raising of Lazarus and one representation of the Miracle at Cana.

In light of Exodus 29:26 and 28:42–43 in the Bible, which teach that nakedness is inclusive of anything that exposes the torso and thighs, Methodists of the conservative holiness movement wear pants or dresses that go beyond the knees, as well as shirts that cover the underarms.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II expressed the Catholic Church's attitude to the exposure of the human body in Love and Responsibility: "The human body can remain nude and uncovered and preserve intact its splendour and its beauty... Nakedness as such is not to be equated with physical shamelessness... Immodesty is present only when nakedness plays a negative role with regard to the value of the person... The human body is not in itself shameful... Shamelessness (just like shame and modesty) is a function of the interior of a person."

Christian naturist sects

Main article: Christian naturism

 

The arrest of Adamites in a public square in Amsterdam

Sects have arisen within Christianity from time to time that have viewed nudity in a more positive light. For example, to the Adamites and the Freedomites, social nudity was an integral part of their ritual. The Adamites, an early Christian sect, practiced "holy nudism", engaging in common worship in the nude. During the Middle Ages, the doctrines of this obscure sect were revived: in the Netherlands by the Brethren of the Free Spirit and the Taborites in Bohemia, and, in a grosser form, by the Beghards in Germany. Everywhere, they met with firm opposition from the mainstream Christian churches.

A religious sect in Canada that immigrated from Russia, the Sons of Freedom, went so far in the 20th century (1903–1950s) as to publicly strip in mass public demonstrations to protest against government policies which were meant to assimilate them.

Christian naturism contains various members associated with most denominations. Although beliefs vary, a common theme is that much of Christianity has misinterpreted the events regarding the Garden of Eden, and God was displeased with Adam and Eve for covering their bodies with fig leaves. De Clercq (2011) argues that the significance of the human need for clothing by far exceeds its theological meaning.

Indian religions

Naga mystics, at the Hindu bathing ceremony of Ardha Kumbh Mela, at Allahabad

In ancient Indian cultures, there was a tradition of extreme asceticism (obviously minoritarian) that included full nudity. This tradition continued from the gymnosophists (philosophers in antiquity) to certain holy men (who may however cover themselves with ashes) in present-day Hindu devotion and in Jainism.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great encountered, in India, wandering groups of naked holy men whom he dubbed the naked philosophers (Gr gymnos: naked; sophist: knowledge). The philosopher Onesicritus investigated their beliefs and lifestyle. Pyrrho the Sceptic was impressed and incorporated nudity into his philosophy. The Gymnosophists were Hindus, but Jain and Ajivika monks practiced nudity as a statement that they had given up all worldly goods.

Hinduism

Philosophical basis

The philosophical basis of nudity arises out of the concept of 'Purushartha' (four ends of human life). 'Purushartha' (Puruṣārtha) are 'Kama' (enjoyment), 'Artha' (wealth), ‘Dharma’ (virtue) and 'Moksha' (liberation). It is ‘Purushartha’ which impels a human being towards nudity or any of its related aspect(s) either for spiritual aim or for the aim of enjoyment. Practice of ‘Dharma’ (virtue) brings good result(s) and non-practice of 'Dharma' leads to negative result(s).

Spiritual basis

In the spiritual aspect of Hinduism nudity symbolizes renunciation ('tyaga' in Hindi) of the highest type. A nude person or deity (for example Kali is a nude deity) denotes one who is devoid of Maya or attachment to the body and one who is an embodiment of infinity. Trailanga Swami, the famous nude saint of India, had given an explanation for nudity in religion in the following words, "Lahiri Mahasaya is like a divine kitten, remaining wherever the Cosmic Mother has placed him. While dutifully playing the part of a worldly man, he has received that perfect Self-realization which I have sought by renouncing everything – even my loincloth!"

Material basis

In comparison in the material aspect nudity is considered an art. This view is supported by Sri Aurobindo in his book The Renaissance in India. He says about Hinduism in the book – "Its spiritual extremism could not prevent it from fathoming through a long era the life of the senses and its enjoyments, and there too it sought the utmost richness of sensuous detail and the depths and intensities of sensual experience. Yet it is notable that this pursuit of the most opposite extremes never resulted in disorder…" Extreme hedonists and materialists like the Charvakas are very candid with regard to pursuing of sensual pleasures. They say, "Marthakamaveva purusharthau" (Riches and pleasure is the summum bonum of life). There is another sloka in support of their view – "Anganalingananadijanyam sukhameva purusatha" (The sensual pleasure arising from the embrace of a woman and other objects is the highest good or end). For non-hedonists pursuing kama (sensual pleasures) accompanied with dharma (virtue) can be the highest ideal or goal in life. There is nothing wrong in it.

Occurrence

Some of the famous nude male and female yogi (male and female saints of India) of Hinduism include Lalla Yogishwari (Lalleshwari), Trailanga Swami, Harihar Baba, Tota Puri. Also in the biography of saint Gorakhnath we have reference to nude male and female yogis who had visited the famous Amarnath Temple during medieval period of India.

Among the Hindu religious sects, only the sadhus (monks) of the Nāga sect can be seen nude. They usually wear a loin-cloth around their waist, but not always; and usually remain in their Akhara or deep forest or isolation and come out in public only once every four years during Kumbh Mela. They have a very long history and are warrior monks, who usually also carry a talwar (sword), trishul (trident), bhala (javelin) or such weapons, and in medieval times have fought many wars to protect Hindu temples and shrines.

Jainism

In India, Digambara monks reject any form of clothing and practice nudity. Digambara (lit. 'sky clad') is one of the two main sects of Jainism. However, the Shwetambar sect is "white-clad" and their holy statues wear a loin cloth.

New religious movements

Raelians in South Korea

New Gymnosophy Society

The first English naturists adopted the name Gymnosophy as a thinly disguised euphemism for their pastime. The English Gymnosophical Society was formed in 1922 and became the New Gymnosophy Society in 1926; they purchased land at 'Bricket Wood' to become Britain's first nudist colony. One of the first members was Gerald Gardner, who in 1945 established the 'Five Acres Club' nearby, ostensibly as a nudist club, but as a front for Wiccans, as witchcraft was illegal in England until 1951.

Neopaganism

In many modern neopagan religious movements, such as Wicca, social and ritual nudity is (relatively) commonplace. In Wicca, the term skyclad refers to ritual nudity instead of social nudity.

Raëlism

In Raëlism, nudity is not problematic. Raëlists in North America have formed GoTopless.org, which organizes demonstrations in support of topfreedom on the basis of the legal and public attitudes to the gender inequality. GoTopless sponsors an annual "Go Topless Day" protest (also known as "National GoTopless Day", "International Go-Topless Day", etc.) in advocacy for women's right to go topless on gender equality grounds.