Jan's camp = regulars on Baker Beach

On the North end of Baker beach ( the warm end ) you will find happy naked camp.
Look for Driftwood and lumber holding up sheets, a cocktail bar, and a volleyball net.
( Nudity and alchol are permitted on Baker beach.
Fires are permitted on Ocean Beach along golden gate park.
Glass is not allowed on either. )
This camp is usually tended by Jan (sp?) pronounced (yawn).
Jan is an intelligent man who has been coming to Baker for a long time
and understands the value of a zone free of invasive guys.
Jan, and others at this camp, will not allow idiot guys to come in and creep out women.
They use direct verbal communication to let men know gawking is not allowed.
They also have an 8x10 mirror for use on hilltop peepers with cameras or binoculars.
This then is the only space on baker beach where a woman can peacefully disrobe, fall asleep, and not wake up to some weird man three feet away staring at her or worse yet, stroking himself.

Joining Jan and his friends are a whole host of Burners, volleyball and ultimate players, hula hoopers, yoga enthusiasts, swimmers, bikers, climbers, etc., making for a really nice earthy community of gay, straight, bi, and whatever sort of tolerant people. There is no sex here.

There are over 300 nude beaches in California.
Often on the North (sunny) end of public beaches.
www.sfbg.com/nudebeaches is a good guide.

Baker beach is very warm on the North end for many reasons:
9 days out of ten, wind comes from Hawaii, or, SouthWest.
Lands end / Cliff House slows this wind before it reaches Baker.
Baker Beach is set inland, unlike cold and windy Ocean Beach.
Baker Bay contains warm water: part Pacific water and part SF bay water, depending on the tide.
Baker Bay is shallow: consult a soundings chart to learn Baker bay is only 10 feet deep per city block, ie
You must swim out five city blocks to reach a depth of 50 feet.
The cliffs on the north end of Baker Beach are 100 feet tall, and form a pocket of undisturbed air below on the beach, where, without wind, it is often painful to walk on the hot sand near the rock wall of North Baker.
The convergence of all these factors makes for a climate conducive to naked bodies.

If you enjoy bouldering/ climbing over rocks, you can exlplore many more nude beaches all the way upto the Golden Gate Bridge.
Baker Beach, Baker Beach North, and Marshall Beach, are excellent places to learn rock climbing.
Here you can climb 3 feet up the sand stone, and travel sideways, always having a soft sand landing if you lose your grip.

Riptides are not so bad here as on Ocean beach either.
There is only one eddy on Baker beach.
If you lose your frisbee in the water, expect it to travel North with the tide at one mile per hour.
As this northward movement of water clips the rock outcropping of North Baker Sandstone,
a 100 to 150 foot CLOCKWISE eddy is somtimes formed. ( honestly rather rare )
Meaning if your are swimming 100 to 150 South of the rocks, you may find yourself working to swim inland.
In that case, you can swim South a few strokes to leave the circle of current.
This phenomenon is truly rare, but I bring it up to lay down what I've learned over 15 years of naked experience at Baker,
to prevent anyone from being scared by someone else claiming there are riptides on Baker.

There are waves on Baker. If you swim on a day of 20 mph winds and are enjoying 10', 12' or larger waves, you'd better catch a full lung set of air before you go under and get happily bounced around within the turbulent surf.
And you have no business being in there if you haven't worked your way up to this.
If you have worked your way up to this you know the importance of breathing fully before you submberge,
as re-emergence can take time.
But these are not riptides. These are waves.
If you note the micro basins and peninsulas along Baker Beach you can understand that as waves crash up the bowls/basins, and merge with each other over the peninsulas, doubling their height/ volume, you can then account for the increased flow / force with which they exit back to the Ocean. But this effect is minor on Baker Beach.
Beaches with larger scale dynamics can have riptides that can carry you out to sea.