{"id":130,"date":"2004-06-13T13:02:28","date_gmt":"2004-06-13T20:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=130"},"modified":"2022-08-12T15:52:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T22:52:29","slug":"cycling-nude-in-la-to-protest-oil-dependence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2004\/06\/13\/cycling-nude-in-la-to-protest-oil-dependence\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling Nude in LA to Protest Oil Dependence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police presence puts a chill on the L.A. leg of World Naked Bike Ride against oil dependence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source of this article<\/a> – Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Daren Briscoe | Times Staff Writer<\/em><\/div>\n
\n

You could almost say that the Los Angeles leg of the World Naked Bike Ride went off as planned Saturday, if you disregarded all the cops and clothes.<\/p>\n

It began well, despite an early morning marine layer. Nearly a dozen riders showed up at the Venice Beach Pier, validating an earlier prediction of “anywhere from zero to 60” participants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The idea was for cyclists, from Brazil to the Netherlands, to protest global dependence on oil by biking nude along predetermined routes in their respective countries.<\/div>\n
\n

By pedaling, the protesters would demonstrate an alternative mode of travel. By cycling in the buff, they would demonstrate their free-spiritedness and their willingness to chafe for the cause.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But any pride generated by the respectable turnout was dampened by a heavy police presence, including bicycle cops from the Los Angeles and Santa Monica police departments, a mobile command trailer and a conspicuously parked paddy wagon.<\/p>\n

That was a little too much heat for the event’s local organizer, a 47-year-old longtime nudist who goes by the name Vinyasi.<\/p>\n

“I’m a nudist, not an activist,” Vinyasi said before the ride.<\/p>\n

In keeping with his remarkably cooperative philosophy regarding public nudity, Vinyasi had made several phone calls telling police of his intentions.<\/p>\n

Not exactly a stealth approach for someone with 30 years of nudist experience, including three arrests, two criminal complaints, two hearings, one citation and “many visits” with police at his front door.<\/p>\n

On the contrary, “I wanted to give them a heads up,” said Vinyasi, who sees practicing public nudity as a “search for compassion” that requires reciprocity.<\/p>\n

If officer deployment was any sign, Vinyasi’s advance warning was much appreciated. He and his cohorts were met in a public parking lot by LAPD Capt. Bill Williams, who advised the all-male group that anyone exposing delicate areas would be arrested for violating the California penal code.<\/p>\n

Forewarned via e-mail about just such an eventuality, the bikers had taken greater or lesser measures to protect themselves.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s indecent that the idea of nudity has been made indecent,” said Jim Dufourd, 52, an architect clad in a sombrero, cutoff T-shirt, wristwatch and codpiece fashioned from a plush toy.<\/p>\n

Frank Villafranca pushed the envelope further by attaching fore and aft photographic reproductions to the outside of his flesh-colored loincloth.<\/p>\n

“This is legal because when it’s a photo, it’s considered art,” said Villafranca, 47.<\/p>\n

And so, in various states of dress and undress, the procession rolled west on a bike path toward the Santa Monica Pier, trailed by watchful officers.<\/p>\n

Taking no chances, Vinyasi, their leader, was bundled in a turquoise sweatshirt pulled over a fuchsia turtleneck, jeans, beach slippers and a blue beanie that covered his ears.<\/p>\n

“They said we could wear whatever is comfortable as long as it’s legal,” Vinyasi said, “but at this point nothing’s comfortable.”<\/p>\n

The group returned an hour or so later, sweaty, winded and sounding vaguely satisfied to announce that there had been no arrests.<\/p>\n

At least one cyclist, a financial advisor named Mark who declined to give his last name, was also candid about the whole oil-dependence thing.<\/p>\n

“The fact is, we’re not doing a thing to reduce the consumption of gas,” Mark said. “Did we get our message out? Yeah, to the police.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police presence puts a chill on the L.A. leg of World Naked Bike Ride against oil dependence. Source of this article – Los Angeles Times, June 13, 2004. Daren Briscoe | Times Staff Writer You could almost say that the Los Angeles leg of the World Naked Bike Ride went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,7,39,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bicycle-riding","category-environment","category-going-green","category-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3984,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/3984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}