The Eyeful Tower

And the nudists are reclining on fairly solid legal ground. Police haven't troubled naturists in Dade since Metro-Dade police legal advisor Laurie Collins issued a memo this past year interpreting the laws regarding public nudity. Merely being nude, she wrote, is not a violation of Florida's nudity statute, section 800.03. The law does prohibit public nudity that is "lewd or lascivious," and someone publicly nude can theoretically be arrested for disorderly conduct under section 877.03, Carson added, "if all the elements of that crime are present."

South Florida Free Beaches members know when they've got themselves covered; the group distributed to nude beachgoers photocopies of Collins's memo with the added note: "ALWAYS TAKE THIS MEMO AND YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE WITH YOU WHEN VISITING A BEACH IN FLORIDA."

Not that any of this makes the parks department any more comfortable with the naked truth. "We understand there might be a particular need for a clothes-optional beach," Lauren Gail says. "But we don't think it is appropriate under this type of organization that looks on itself as a family-oriented agency."

Not surprisingly, the parks department has not made an extraordinary effort to strip away the obstacles to happy, safe, nude beachgoing. The north end of Haulover still hasn't been officially designated as a nudist area, and department administrators haven't complied with the nudists' requests to post signs that warn people they are entering a clothing-optional area. Administrators also have failed to add any more lifeguard towers to the area. On other less-populated stretches of the beach, lifeguard towers are spaced about 150 yards apart; the lifeguard post at the nude beach is about 400 yards away from its nearest neighbor.