By Susan Sandys  January 25 2010

Mid Cantabrians attending Pineglades Naturist Club’s open day next month will not have to remove their clothes.

Spokesperson Peter Whalan said some of the club’s more than 200 members were from Ashburton, and it was hoped more from the town would attend the open day on Waitangi Day.

 The club, at Rolleston, was one of two naturist facilities in Canterbury, and the one closest to Ashburton.

 A highlight of the annual open day is a volley ball challenge.

 For the 31st year in a row the club will compete against Rolleston Fire Service members and, in a separate challenge called the tri-series cup, the two teams will compete with a third team, from Selwyn district police.

 But while, weather permitting, Pineglades members will be unclothed, firefighters and police officers won’t be.

 Similarly, Mr Whalan said, there would be no expectation for visiting members of the public to take their clothes off.

 Naturism was more so about having the freedom to wear nothing rather than forcing people to.

 “It’s about what people are relaxed with,” he said.

 The only rule when it came to clothing was that none could be worn in the club’s swimming pool.

 Mr Whalan said often new members were nervous when it came to their first time of socialising without their clothes on.

 “Generally speaking the first breaking of the ice is on a stinking hot day, and they will just have to get in the pool, and once they are in there’s no going back,” Mr Whalan said.

 Pineglades is located on an 18-hectare landscaped property and includes facilities such as volleyball and tennis courts, petanque piste, club house, accommodation, swimming pool, sauna and spa.

 The club’s members include families and individuals, aged from late teens to their 80s, from all walks of life.

 They range from doctors and lawyers to blue collar workers.

 Mr Whalan said when members shed their clothing they shed the stresses of daily life, and relating to one another on this level bridged the common boundaries of social status.

 Naturism built self esteem, and vitamin D levels due to more skin being exposed to the sun.

The club offered a healthy environment for both sporting and non-sporting members.