IT'S A MANZ WORLD

THE END OF A FUN DAY - Note: Most of my Manz World stories are fictionalized accounts of how the painting shown here came to be. However, some of the stories are rooted in truth.

Several years ago I spent a week visiting friends in California. I had first met the couple at the local nudist camp in Pennsylvania where I was a member. They had made the move to California because the husband’s company had relocated to the San Diego area and since he was one of the department supervisors the move was, as he said, “a no-brainer” since, if he didn’t move, he would have lost seniority in a job that provided a rather substantial income. However, that decision was a difficult one for them since they both were long time residents of Pennsylvania and had family, including three adult children, living close by.

During my visit they took me to some of the more known, touristy places, including day trips to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park. But one place which was less known and, certainly not advertised in most tourist brochures, was a nude beach in nearby La Jolla called “Black’s Beach.”

Black's Beach is located beneath the bluffs of Torrey Pines on the Pacific Ocean. It is well known to nudist throughout America because it is one of the largest nude beaches in the United States and, obviously, popular with Southern Californian nudists and naturists.

The area around Black’s Beach is very popular with surfers—both nude and non-nude—because it has some of the most powerful surf breaks in the state. Those breaking waves gain their power due to the effects of an underwater canyon just offshore. Depending on weather conditions and the time of the day those waves can be large and fast, making them difficult, even dangerous, for even the most advanced surfers to navigate.

Fortunately, the area of the beach that we visited that day was subdued and pleasant. Because we were going to spend most of the day on the beach, the wife of the couple I visited prepared a picnic lunch. The day was a beautiful one, with a warm sun glowing above us and a gentle breeze blowing in from the ocean. After a refreshing swim in the ocean waters, we had a most delicious lunch and then a lengthy resting time as we lounged on a large blanket, protected from the sun’s rays by a huge umbrella.

It was toward late afternoon that we began to pack up—and dress—in order to return to my friends’ home in time for dinner. As we were about to leave I looked out for a last view of the ocean and saw two young men walking out of the water. Both were naked and carrying what looked like a small portable raft. I had never seen such a thing before but was told later it was a rather popular item with locals who, not being surfers, could enjoy the ocean waves in a similar fashion since, like a surfer, they would be carried on the crest of the waves much like experienced on a surf board.

After I retuned from my trip I thought about those two young men and decided to paint my memory of them coming back after their day in the ocean. I call the painting, “The End of a Fun Day.”