Imagine yourself hanging out at Wreck Beach in Vancouver (pun intended) when a group of tourists come along with their cameras out. Uncomfortable, right?
Those are the claims being made by a vocal group of Wreck beachgoers, who are accusing a Vancouver-based tour company of enabling bad behaviour at one of the city’s outdoor nude-friendly gems.
Daily Hive connected with some of the concerned beachgoers who shared their claims, and we also had an exclusive interview with GlobalDuniya, the tour company in question.
“Wreck Beach is a sacred space,” Abby DeForest, one of the passionate beachgoers, told Daily Hive.
“There is a reason we feel comfortable being naked there. There are rules for being on the beach, including not taking pictures of anyone. This ‘tour group’ seems completely voyeuristic to me,” DeForest added.
What the tour company says
GlobalDuniya has one listing for the apparent tours on its website, a tour for which it is charging $399.
GlobalDuniya
The tour summary confusingly reads that participants will “embark on a unique and liberating Vancouver adventure with the Vancouver clothing-optional (Nude) beach with Evening attraction Private–an exclusive and personalized journey that seamlessly combines the scenic beauty of a clothing-optional beach with an evening attraction.”
We spoke with Anant Mishra, the tour manager at GlobalDuniya, about the accusations that people taking the tour are not necessarily using the best etiquette at Wreck Beach. He suggested that his company merely drops tour members off at the parking lot; what goes on after that is out of their control.
“We’re just dropping them up top by the parking lot, and then they’re on their own,” Mishra said.
He added that whatever someone does after they’re dropped off is not his tour group’s responsibility but still denied that people were taking pictures of beachgoers. He claimed that they haven’t done any Wreck Beach tours this season and haven’t since 2021, despite the listing still being up at the time of this story’s publishing.
We also asked why the tours were so expensive.
“The price is so high because we run private luxury tours aimed towards people who want to visit different tour spots in an expensive car in privacy with a professional tour guide,” GlobalDuniya told Daily Hive in an email.
Undressing the concerns at Wreck Beach
Margarita Young/Shutterstock
One of the main concerns of beachgoers and one of the main rules at Wreck Beach is the protection of people’s privacy. Complaints about the lack of etiquette at Wreck Beach extend beyond these alleged tours.
A concerned Wreck beachgoer told Daily Hive that this has been one of the worst years for men in full street clothing who walk the beach and stare and gawk at them like “zoo animals.”
“In some cases, they try to film us,” the concerned beachgoer said.
“This needs to stop.”
Another beachgoer told Daily Hive, “As an avid Wreck goer and sometimes nudist; I couldn’t be more frustrated by the lack of respect, the intentional ignorance, nor the sheer hypocrisy of hosting or going on a tour of a place of safety and culture that’s an absolute community-minded gem.”
“If I were to step into any church or temple in the world and not respect its sanctity, I would be rightly admonished and chased out until I’d learned some genuine respect for myself and others,” they added.
One of the Facebook comments from a concerned beachgoer stated, “It’s not illegal or immoral to tour unique places. But in my experience, when you do so, you are obliged to adhere to expectations.”
Another Facebook user said, “Nude beaches are not tour beaches.”
Based on what we heard from Wreck beachgoers, the community is just expecting and hoping for basic etiquette and respect for privacy.
Have you noticed any suspicious behaviour if you’re a Wreck Beach regular? Let us know in the comments.
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