LOCAL SPORTS
Nude tennis event a hit on the Internet
Bruce Arthur National Post
Thursday, May 15, 2003 ADVERTISEMENT
For those who have always loved tennis but would prefer the removal of those cumbersome clothes, the solution is at hand, providing that hand is at a computer with Internet access.
The Lake Como Nudist Resort in Florida is planning what it calls the first-ever pay-per-view Webcast of a nude co-ed tennis tournament, and the initial response has been so enthusiastic the broadcast has been postponed one week to May 21.
"We've been playing nude tennis tournaments for years and years and years, decades, but it's never been Webcast," says Elf Andersen, Lake Como Resort's marketing director. "That's why it's so exciting."
The Webcast, which was filmed at the resort last weekend, was slated to be broadcast yesterday. But as awareness has increased, traffic on the Lake Como Resort Web site has more than quadrupled on average, with spikes that raised the hits per hour from 500 to over 23,000.
"We had to expand our capabilities to handle the volume we've received," says the sunny Andersen.
The tournament consists of two nine-person teams, with players rotating in and out of play on Lake Como's clay courts. The nudists in question had to be members of one of America's two largest naturalist organizations -- "They had to be nudists, card-carrying nudists," Andersen says -- and in order to represent the true nudist spirit, the competitors come in a variety of shapes and sizes.
"We didn't go after body beautifuls or model quality people," says Andersen, herself a nudist since 1975. "We wanted to show nudism in its true form, with total acceptance of all body types. So we have some beautiful bodies, and they're all beautiful. Just some of them are more beautiful on the inside."
The two teams were called the Sun Seekers and the Buffaneers, respectively, since sunny Lake Como is just 17 miles north of Tampa, home of the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And the players will not be the only nudists on the Webcast.
"We had the spectators nude, we had the commentators nude, the umpire was nude," Andersen enthused.
The spectacle will last two hours at a cost of US$14.95, payable at www.tennisinthebuff.com.
Andersen promises viewers will have spent wisely.
"I play volleyball, and I can't sit and watch tennis normally," she said. "But the play level was just excellent. Even those that don't play as regularly as others or had lower skills, they really rose to the occasion."
barthur@nationalpost.com