9/03

My wife and I went to Venice Beach last week and had a wonderful time. Katie had always admired the courage of women she saw sunning topfree, but she had never "taken the plunge."

Soon after we arrived in the late morning, two women planted themselves pretty close to us and immediately took their tops off. Katie noticed, watched for a few minutes, and then took a deep breath and followed suit. She spent the next three hours topfree and even struck up a nice conversation with the other two ladies. A police vehicle did drive by a few times, but because Venice is such a big, wide beach, we saw them coming and Katie simply turned over until they passed with no problem. Katie fell in love with the topfree experience and can't wait to do it again.

--Steve and Katie, Hermosa Beach, California

8/02

I recently went to Venice Beach after moving to LA from NYC. As I was going to my usual spot at Rose Avenue, I saw a topfree woman and decided to join her. Her name is Melissa and it was wonderful to be able to lay out with some as open-minded. She told me about your site and I just had to write in. One of the things we noticed--and it's been reported at other beaches, too--is that once one woman goes topfree, invariably more follow. As we lay out, at least two other women joined us. We agreed to come back and to bring friends. That way, hopefully, more and more women will join.

--Janice, Santa Monica, California

8/01

I was laying out near the police sub-station, on the main beach just north of Venice Boulevard, when three women decided to go topfree. Almost immediately, a nearby woman became very agitated because she didn't want her children seeing topfree women. She called the police on her cell phone. The response she received annoyed her even more--essentially that the police would not walk less than 100 yards to cite the women. I couldn't help but wonder if she were that protective when it came to violent video games and movies!! She was so annoying, that, even though I don't normally go topfree in the States (although I have all over Europe), that I decided to take my top off, too, to annoy here ;). The beach patrol came out once in three hours, but turned away from where we were and never bothered us once.

--Janice, Mar Vista, California

6/99

From SFBG.COM

VENICE BEACH
Venice is a suited shore where women's swimsuit tops sometimes disappear. Because the beach is so long and wide, lifeguard stations are set far apart. I remember one day in the early 1970s when the woman I was with took off her top and proceeded to lie on her back, an official no-no even then. Two hours later, three lifeguards drove over in a Jeep and asked her to suit up. As soon as they were out of sight, the top came back off and we weren't bothered again. Today the tradition continues.

By Gary Hanauer