Sunsport Nudist Sports Gardens Information

Is this your first visit to Sunsport or to a nudist resort or nudist beach like Young Gardens?  If so, click here for some valuable information.

The Sun-sport Vision
When Hugo Forester founded Sunsport Gardens in 1965, he envisioned a "Happy Place for All Living Things.' He chose to keep the roads and trails unpaved. He allowed trees and large bushes to be planted, but not removed. He built ponds connected by canals to attract birds and provide for boating and fishing. (The ponds also help with drainage during the late summer rainy season.) He created a long nature trail through the tropical jungle. Sunsport is home to many animals including land and water birds, frogs and toads, little lizards. iguanas butterflies, and otters. There are a large variety of tropical fruit trees (e.g. citrus, canistel, carambola, sapote, banana, guava, mango, sapodilla, and avocado).

Hugo Forester, Sunsport Founder
(1924 - 2001)

Hugo wanted children as well as adults to love Sunsport, so he encouraged them to freely explore the natural surroundings as they would the fields and woods near a country home. Hugo felt strongly that Sunsport amateur nude friends should be open to all who shared his vision. As the sign at Sunsport's gate states: "Naturists are welcome regardless of race, religion, gender, marital status, sexual orientation or disabling condition."

As Hugo developed Sunsport from a tomato farm to the most naturally tropical naturist resort in the United States, he gradually put in a full range of amenities: volleyball, tennis and petanque courts a heated swimming pool, sauna, and spa, a full service restaurant, deluxe cabins, and for children a playground and even a slide into the pool.

When Hugo died in 2001, a group of Sunsport members committed to preserving Hugo's dream purchased the Sunsport Corporation. We expanded the vision to incorporate traditional naturist values from which many nude resorts including Sunsport had strayed. We chose to have a healthful, clean, and ecologically sensitive environment. On our first day of ownership, we became the first naturist resort in Florida to eliminate smoking in all common buildings and rental units. We also established a comprehensive recycling program. Months were spent removing junk accumulated over the years. (Hugo had never thrown anything out.) Although bars are usually good sources of income for resorts, we decided not to provide alcoholic beverages, although people may bring their own. With the reduction in alcohol consumption, the atmosphere around the pool and at dances is considerably less rowdy and raunchy. We lost some members as a result of the restrictions on smoking and drinking, but are gaining many others. The Sunsport restaurant now provides vegetarian options at all meals and is sensitive to people's preferences for low fat or low carb meals. While we have no desire to require the smoke-free, alcohol-free, meat-free rules and daily calisthenics of some early nudist clubs, we encourage a healthy lifestyle with opportunities for exercise and healthy food.

Sunsport Gardens Owners
(from left Lorraine Washington, Roger Johnson, Anne Fischer, Morley Schloss, Dick Hetzel)

Sunsport members pitch in to help create a sense of fun and community. Recently they helped renovate the kitchen, expand the dance floor, and build a large deck outside the dining room connected-to the pool. Members plant fruit trees and beautiful gardens. They lead yoga and dance classes. The community involvement at Sunsport is not new. In the past, members funded and built a large pavilion for dances and parties, maintained the nature trail and even helped dig the hole for the swimming pool. When I first visited Sunsport many years ago, there were volleyball games on most days after work and lots of families with children. A goal is to foster such an atmosphere again.

The shareholders of Sunsport Gardens Inc., are interested solely in maintained further developing Sunsport as a natural, healthy and fun community and resort; there is no interest in personal profit. All income is reinvested into Sunsport. Recent projects include a new sewage treatment plant, bringing in high quality water to replace the poor quality well water, a top-of-the-line resurfacing of the tennis courts, a bridge to an island in a pond, and making all facilities handicapped friendly. Shareholders pay the site rental fees as all other members and have signed a "Buy-Sell Agreement" requiring that any corporate Shares sold may be sold only for the original purchase price plus inflation.  Sunsport Gardens is a unique resort with a clear set of values, fully complementary to the values of the Naturist Society. Each February Sunsport hosts the Midwinter Naturist Festival to benefit the Naturist Action Committee.

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