About 1000 Sydney Skinny swimmers strip off for better body image and a world record

Read for instance Perth Now (but of course, NSFW alert)

About 1000 swimmers bared all at Cobblers Beach on Sunday morning for the Sydney Skinny, setting a new world record for the largest nude ocean swim.

“This event is easily misunderstood. It’s not just about running around naked.”

In its second year, the event attracted young and old including a man in a wheelchair who was assisted by his carer and two women survivors of mastectomies.

Event creator Nigel Marsh said the event aims to promote a positive body image and was summed up by “unbelievably happy looks” on the faces of the two women who spotted each other out of the crowd of nude bathers and embraced.

Mr Marsh said the community swim was a chance to “be utterly authentic and stick two fingers up at all those ludicrous, airbrushed images of bodily perfection in the magazines”.

See also www.thesydneyskinny.com.au