The Skinnydippers and Newton Wave Pool - The History

In 2002 and 2003 a group of friends who were later to become Skinnydipper Services Inc., ran monthly nude swim nights at Newton Wave Pool in Surrey. We held 9 very successful events with rising attendance from June 2002 until January 2003. We were unceremoniously ejected from Newton Wave Pool by management of Surrey's department of Parks, Recreation and Culture. Following the unilateral cancellation by Surrey, of our event contracts, we organised an appeal of the decision first to the Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee (PRCC) and then to Surrey City Council. Our application to appear before the PRCC was debated with some members of the committee supporting our appeal. Nonetheless, with considerable "guidance" from the then chair, our application was denied. Our application to appear before Surrey Council was approved and we appeared as a delegation on 10 March 2003. We presented a petition of hundreds of names, requesting that Council rescind the staff decision and restore our swim. Paul Andreassen and Judy Williams each made strong presentations protesting the unilateral actions of the staff and requesting that Surrey Council support our appeal. Judy Williams presented a short video showing the success of Haulover Nude Beach in the City of Miami, Florida and the support it has with local government.

After our appearance as a delegation at the Council meeting in March we waited until mid-May to hear the result. Surrey City Council voted, in a closed meeting in May 2003, to affirm the decision of Surrey PRCC staff in denying our right to use the pool. In spite of this set-back, we were determined to continue and attempted to negotiate with PRCC to overcome the roadblocks.We even had a meeting with the manager of PRCC to determine what steps we would need to take to make our application to use the pool succesful. One of the indications was that our group was loosely organised and that the City was uncomfortable contracting for pool rental with an individual. There followed about a year of organising and meetings which culminated in bringing together Skinnydipper Services (Paul Andreassen's single-proprietorship business), the Skinnydipper Swim Club, with a small group of shareholders in the new business, Skinnydipper Services Inc., in September 2004. Along the way, we established a relationship with Renfrew Pool in Vancouver where we run monthly nude swims to this day. With the establishment of our new business, we felt it appropriate to attempt, again, to negotiate with PRCC staff and began writing letters requesting to be allowed to rent the pool for monthly nude swims.

We sent our first letter requesting reinstatement of our pool rentals in December of 2004 and continued back and forth correspondance with the PRCC staff until spring 2006. We made our last formal request to rent the pool in March 2006. Our letter of 12 May 2006 to the Manager of Community and Leisure Services was our last communication. In every letter, Surrey staff at PRCC have refused our rental requests with frivolous and even, at times, insulting excuses. They have always, however, relied on their very badly written Bylaw #13480.

Following our last exchange we realised that we were, and would be, getting nowhere in trying to deal with Surrey staff. It had become appearent that they were under instructions to deny our applications no matter what. Having exhausted diplomacy, we felt that we had no recourse but a court challenge and began our research into the legal aspects of the situation. Having found and consulted legal experts, we have retained legal counsel and intend to challenge the City of Surrey in Court.

March 2007

In the early part of this month, word of our pending legal action was leaked to the press. Although we had never publicized our intentions, it was never our policy to be secretive. Therefore, when we were contacted by a reporter from the Surrey Now newspaper, we were quite willing to answer his questions. Following publication of his story, first in the Vancouver Sun and the Vancouver Courier newspapers and then in the Surrey Now newspaper, there was a minor media frenzy with more newspaper articles, disussions on radio programs and mentions on local television newscasts.

Preparation of the paperwork necessary for us to file in court is in the hands of our lawyer. We have not and will not set or announce a date for filing. That will be based entirely on the completion of the paperwork. Although we are eager to have this issue settled, we will not jeopardize our case by rushing the preparation.

May 2007

As we approach the final stages of preparations for our legal challenge, our costs are mounting. To help finance our campaign, in addition to accepting donations, we will be putting on fundraising events to raise money for our efforts. The first will be a Pub Night in June in place of the Skinnydipper Nude Swim at Renfrew Pool (cancelled for pool maintenance). You can find details of our fund raising events by following the "Events" link in our navigation bar, above.

Our petition was filed in BC Supreme Court on May 15 and Surrey has 7 days to indicate whether or not they intend to oppose our claim. Once the file their intention, they have 8 days to file their documents opposing our claim. We should have a result within just a few weeks.

We issued a press release to coincide approximately with the filing of our petition and this resulted very good press coverage with positive, supportive articles in the Surrey Now, Surrey Leader and the Vancouver Province. Paul Andreassen has been interviewed by David Gray on the Calgary edition of CBC TV Newsworld, Rick Cluff on CBC Radio Early Edition and by Michael Smith on CKNW's Nightline BC. Our experience with the press and with the public in general shows just how badly out of touch the Surrey Council is with the people they claim to represent.

August 2007

At the present time we are awaiting a court date and are hopeful that this can be arranged for sometime in September.
Our pub night in June was a great success and we have decided to arrange another. We will be having another fundraising pub night for September 15th at the Firefighters' Club in Burnaby. Check the "Events" page for details.

October 2007

Our court date has been set for October 18th in Vancouver. We are anxiously awaiting the outcome with great hope that we will finally have a succesful resolution to our dispute. Once again, we have had a very successful pub nigth at the Fire Fighters' Club in Burnaby.