Naked and at leisure

There are fewer places more curious, titillating and entertaining for a young maleperson who hasn't grown up in North America than the hallowed halls of a YMCA men's locker room.

Naturally, the one thing I knew about the YMCA before I stepped into one my first time, this past September, was that damn song of which we shall not speak again. There also may have been a faint recollection of something I read, or something someone told me, about YMCAs being almost institutionalized cruising areas, places where closeted gay guys got their rocks off during... Whatever decade.

Clearly, things must be different today, especially in places like Montreal or Halifax, where an honest-to-god gay sauna, complete with porn screens, swings and condom dispensers, is never too far away. The gay saunas or bathhouses thus seem to stand in stark opposition to most honest-to-god gyms, where changing rooms are places most men run through, showers are obligatory and coy, and nudity is contained, at least to a degree.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I first stepped into a YMCA and found it occupying a sweet spot between the gay sauna and the gym, a spot so sweet, in fact, that I couldn't wait to go again.

The first time was in Montreal, and I was fresh off the proverbial boat, spending my first week in Canada with a friend who flew down to visit me from Halifax. He is an intellectual through and through, and also the kind of person who cares about such concepts as gluten, yoga and organic. He also has a "plus" membership of some sort, which not only allowed me to go as a guest (a nice perk, but this is not that kind of a review), as well as access to the exclusive locker room that includes a sauna, a TV lounge and, well, showers and lockers. The whole experience was on the uneventful side - the swimming pool itself is co-ed, of course, and the locker room area didn't have a huge number of guys at the time. The dry sauna was empty and the steam was out-of-order. In fact, the whole place looked a little rundown. However, there was a faint sense of community that I felt here, inspired I'm sure by the guy lounging in the TV room in just his towel, or the somewhat intimate and privacy-challenged shower and bathroom areas.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I find myself going to the YMCA again, with the same friend, although this time in Halifax. The winter break has really felt wonderful, and I've been getting lots of sleep and good food, and now my friend decided it was time to challenge ourselves a little. Sure. So this YCMA looks a lot more rundown compared to the Montreal one, but the staff is nicer, and we get our towels and it's off to the "plus" membership locker room.

The difference hit me almost instantaneously. Firstly, there are a lot more guys, and the vast majority of them naked at that. My locker was right by one occupied by a jock-type guy, probably in his mid-20s, naked and at leisure. In fact, the whole place could be described in those terms. In fact, my friend's typical get-up-and-go attitude seemed weirdly out of place here, especially compared to how well it otherwise fits this fast and effective society. The locker rooms opened into an area with a dry sauna, a steam room, a whirlpool (!) and the showers. After sprinting through all of these and splashing ourselves with the mandatory shower, we made our way down a series of seriously rundown and, more importantly, non-heated hallways to the swimming pool.

Now, I like swimming as much as the next guy, but the siren call of that locker room was way stronger than my love for swimming, which was why I excused myself after a while to go "check out the whirlpool." The swimming gear went off as soon as I stepped back into the shower area, as well as my flip flops - there is something about footwear that makes you feel not as naked. Between the dry sauna, the steam room, the whirlpool and the showers, I was amazed at the level of intimacy, friendliness and sheer, unobstructed masculinity that was on display there. While the majority of the guys were older (45+) and I was surely the youngest one, there were also a couple of guys in late 20s and 30s. I had a nice little chat with a nice older dude in the dry sauna (something about it being hot, imagine), and I spent some time watching a dude in his forties shaving in the buff at the little sink in the steam room. Then I had a little time in the whirlpool, where an older dude told me to be careful about the jets, because I could give myself an enema (!), after which I gave myself a quick rinse and went back to the swimming pool.

I'm sorry, but this is a revelation.

We are probably hitting the YMCA again today, and my friend mentioned that he would be going to the gym, which should leave me with an hour and a half to kill on my own in the swimming pool and the jacuzzi. In other words, time to get naked and homosocial, not to mention get inspiration for this, my new blog. See you until the next post!

-Nik