Pisco! The Man who gave the land for the village!

[Administration]

From our last interview with Mike in the state of Michigan, USA, your reporter thought it was time to seek out the beginning of this community and that meant a trip to Switzerland and a visit to PISCO! Unfortunately, he was in Bali on a surf holiday and he agreed to give us the run-down, on the early time, a year ago and the state of Naturism in his wonderful country. 


1.  So, thanks for taking the time to do this!    Its cold in Switzerland! Its been cold in N. America as well this winter. How do you deal?

Hello there! From what I heard it's still very cold in Switzerland. I'm very happy to be in Bali at the moment, enjoying some beautiful surf holidays! The winter season in Switzerland is very long and I always have a lack of sun. Usually I go to the mountains for snowboarding, but this year was very busy and I managed to go once only. Going to the mountains always cheers me up because you're above the clouds usually, that means a lot of sun.

2.  You are well noted as the first person who had this concept of IYNO.
Will you take us through the entire situation from start to now, and how it came to be?  As we recall, you were a member of YNAI previously and then, how did this start?

For me it all started a couple of years ago when I found and joined a forum for young people, very similar to this one. It was owned and run by two guys from Australia. Very sadly one of these two brothers passed away and the other one couldn't really cope with this terrible loss.
I perceived him as a very moody person who imposed his views on the community which at that point had grown quite big. He regularly threatened to close down the forum for unclear reasons and didn't want to give control of the forum into someone else's hands. The rock bottom was hit when an argument between him and Danee arose. Danee decided to leave the forum. Because Danee was one of the main driving forces behind that community, it was very clear to me, that the forum would never be the same as before. Because I had made the proposal to financially and technically support and run the forum, Danee approached me in December 2008 and asked me whether I would help building a new community. A few months passed and after she was approached by a few of her close friends, she contacted me once again.  I was very happy to join because Danee had contact to so many wonderful people and I knew that we could build something very valuable to naturism.

From my professional background my role in this community is to provide the technical infrastructure and make sure that things run smoothly. I don't impose rules or anything, for that we have our truly outstanding team of moderators who take care of this place better than I could!

3.    Growing up in Switzerland must have been terrific for a kid.  Tell us about your youth and how you got interested in real naturism in Switzerland?

Yes, I was very lucky to grow up in Switzerland and I still love this country although I like to travel a lot and was born in Santiago de Chile.

4.    Family? Tell us about your family and friends.

I have three older sisters, all about 10 years older than me. They all have children and I'm very lucky to be the uncle of 4 beautiful nieces. I have a two years younger brother too. I really enjoyed growing up in a big family. And then there is my girlfriend with whom I have been together for over 7 years.
Neither my own, nor my girlfriends family is into naturism. And as of my knowledge none of my friends are, but I have to admit that I usually don't mention the topic unless I'm asked.

5.    Interests, other then Naturism of course? What keeps our host busy!

I love to travel and I love doing sports, specially surfing. Unfortunately I had a very busy year and couldn't travel a lot ... and, as you can see from my shape, I didn't do a lot of sports. I work for a software company here in Switzerland and besides that I'm trying to build up my own business with a friend. We are trying to build a platform for surf holidays, have a look at www.surf-holiday.com :-) This means that I work 100% for my day job, and the in the evening and during weekend, I have to take care of my business to. But it's a lot of fun and I'm learning many interesting things.

6.    We understand you are a member of the Swiss Naturists. Please enlighten us on their programs and specially, their youth programs. And, to what extent are you yourself involved?

Because there was no official public naturist place near Zürich, my girlfriend and I looked around for other possibilities to get naked. We found a very beautiful resort near Zürich where we decided to apply for membership. We wanted a place where we could be nude safely without having to bother about voyeurs and the like. That's about it with my current involvement with Swiss Naturism. I really would like to do more for it, but as I already said, I'm way to busy at the moment. But it's definitely a plan.

7.    Girlfriends? Boyfriends? Their reaction and involvement at all?

As I've already mentioned I've been together with my girlfriend for over 7 years now. When we got together neither her nor myself were into naturism. For me it started all of a sudden during a summer holiday with my parents in Spain. One day all of a sudden I felt the desire to go to a naturist beach, and that's where it all started.
When I told her about my new passion, she wasn't very pleased, to say the least. But after many talks and a lot of passion I finally convinced her to give it a try. It took it's time and it wasn't easy, but now she enjoys going skinny dipping. Especially during summer holidays when at the beach.

8.    Are there any groups associated with universities or colleges?

I don't know of any.

9.    How are Swiss laws about nudity?

I don't really know to be honest. But a good thing about Switzerland is that people try to use common sense, and if you act reasonably you usually don't get into troubles. No rule without exception.

10.    Whats your fav place to go nude in Switzerland?

There are many places I have to check out, but at the moment my favorite place is the naturist resort where I'm a member. I'd loved to go on a bike ride in the Swiss Alps and stop at a remote lake for having a skinny dip.

11.    There is much written about their being differences between Naturist or Nudist.  Some are firm on their beliefs, others see little difference. What do you think?

We've had many discussions on the topic. A nudist in my opinion, is someone who likes to be nude, not more and not less. Naturism is something more fundamental, it's a philosophy, a way of thinking and life. A naturist enjoys being nude just as a nudist does, but he does it consciously. I see myself as a naturist and I think that naturism is something everyone should try and think about. Not only because it's healthy and the most natural thing in the world, but also because I find it very important to have a healthy body consciousness. I also find it important to be socially nude because only so do we learn that nudity, and not only my own, is natural.

12.    Over in the UK, the Naked Rambler has gotten much publicity (google it to those that do not know of him). What are your thoughts?

I don't know what to think on this matter. The situation got out of control on both sides and I wouldn't want to take against someone. But I recognize that sometimes it takes crazy people to change current misconceptions. I not sure what he's doing his cause a favor or not.

13.    Where do you envision this forum and community going in the next year and how it should evolve?
Are you happy with the format and forum and the many other topics other then naturism?

I really like the forum how it currently is. I think the mods have done an exceptional work in achieving what we have here. I would have loved being more involved but at the moment I'm too busy at work and on other projects. The mods are doing a great job and my job is to keep platform functional and not bother the community with financial or technical matters.
I would really like to get to know some people from the forum personally, so I repeat: if you ever happen to come to Switzerland, drop me a line and will happily show you around Zürich.

14.    Give us some links to wonderful places for real naturism in Switzerland. Tell us about it, and we see that there are two others from your country on the forum, Robino being the most active.  Is he an example of how Swiss young people are? I mean, his manners? Hes noted for the best on the forum and all think that.

One of the best "resorts" I've heard of is http://www.die-neue-zeit.ch/. I haven't been there yet. And there I are some other places in Switzerland where you can enjoy being nude. It's my plan to compile a make available, a list of places in Switzerland. But that's another story!

Thank you and feel free to ask and answer any questions we have not asked!


Thank YOU, Matias, (his name, folks) for everything you did, and everything you believe in. Your passion, your dedication and commitment makes this community possible and we never, ever forget it. 

[Nude_not_rude]

Thanks for that interview and thank you for making this place possible for all of us to enjoy and connect with other great people from around the world.

[rc]

thank you

[brandon]

Thank you, Pisco (Matias), for all your hard work and support for the forum, and for this interview.

Just a side note about the other forum: The other twin, if that is in fact the case, also passed away recently.

And yes, Robino certainly has excellent manners. Some of us occasionally get a little fiesty, so it's good to have such exemplary members as role models.

[genxnaturist]

Hi
thanks for answering questions.  Cool to know danee was driving force on creation of this forum
sorry that that old forum had its problems
michael

[joers1023]

excellent interview! made some great points and i was happy to read how this place was founded.

[nakedlover]

Nice interview