Nudism in California: The Ultimate Guide

✅ Dude (M/F): In California, everybody is “dude”. It’s used for both men and women and to address someone or to talk about someone else. For us, who meet lots of people and completely fail in remembering names, this is a gift from heaven. You can easily say “Hey dude, where’s that dude who was playing volleyball with the other dude and won from the big dude?”. People will exactly know who you’re talking about.

✅ Bro: “Bro” is the little brother of Dude and is mostly used among men. If you even can’t remember the word dude, you can call people bro as well. We wonder if the uprise of these words has anything to do with the legalisation of marijuana in the state.

✅ Butthurt: This term is used when people are acting over sensitive. Like “Jane was completely butthurt when she lost the nude volleyball game”.

✅ Hella: Short for “hell of a”, which means “very” or “much”. It’s used for everything that’s even a little more than just average. In California you don’t have a good time, you have a hella good time.

✅ Epic: If “hella” isn’t strong enough to express your experience, it was certainly epic. Or you put extra power by combining both: “We had a hella good time in that epic nudist resort”. Don’t be afraid to use epic more often than you should, everyone does that.

✅ To bum: It’s like borrowing but with the intention of not giving it back. Basically it’s asking someone to just give you something. This is mostly used for small things: You bum a cigarette or a quarter but you borrow someone’s car.

✅ To bail/Cruise: Cruising can be used for both coming and leaving while bailing is only for leaving. “Hey dude, I’m gonna bail and cruise over to that other dude’s place”.

✅ The 110 north: Californians call their roads by the number and the directions by the compass. If you’re driving in California make sure that you have at least a slight idea about what the map looks like because when asking for directions you’ll hear something like “Very easy dude, you take the 101 east to the 130 and then up on the 110 north.”

✅ A 2 hour drive: Especially in the big cities and on large highways, the traffic jams are infamous. So if you’re wondering how long it will take you to get from point A to point B it makes little sense to know the distance in miles or kilometres. Therefor, the Californias measure distances in time. When you ask people in Pasadena how far it is it Venice beach they will look at their watch and tell you that it’s about an hour away.

✅ NorCal & SoCal: It seems like northern Californians and southern Californians are a complete different breed and they are proud about their region. Because it takes a long time to tell everyone “I am from southern California” they just cut it to “I’m SoCal”.

✅ Later: When it comes out of the mouth of a Californian, this can mean anything between in a couple of hours and the end of the year. Or maybe even never. Later certainly doesn’t always mean today. So be careful with this. If a Californian says that he/she will call you later and you really want the call anytime soon, ask to agree on a specific date and time.

✅ The Industry: Saying that you work in “The Industry” in SoCal and specifically in Los Angeles means that you’re in the entertainment business (TV, movie or music). However, in some regions or among some groups of people “The Industry” can also be a reference to the porn business. So be careful with asking whether someone works in The Industry as a compliment.