We have photos of the World Naked Bike Ride anti-BP protest event in Miami, Florida. The World Naked Bike Ride is an international bike ride in which participants meet and ride together in groups on bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, etc, to “protest oil dependency and celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies.” You can see the official site here. As expected from such a description, full and partial nudity is encouraged for this event. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, based on the level of oppressiveness of local laws. (Miami police made sure there was no nudity, but some people toed the line a bit. Anyway, this post is fairly safe for viewing).
Take Miami, for example. When we first saw the story about the naked bike ride event that was to take off from a BP station on 10th st and Biscayne Blvd, we thought – cool! We were gonna be in Miami that weekend. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see that and maybe cover it. Well, we weren’t exactly sure how to get to the BP station, since our GPS said there were BP stations all over Biscayne Blvd, and Bill’s sense of direction is nil. But fortunately, NE 10th street was right near our hotel and sure enough we stumbled upon a small group of people at a BP gas station surrounded by a helping of cops and local news people.
The cops guaranteed that nobody was going to be completely nude without going to jail, but we saw people do their best. Since creative expression was encouraged at these events, we saw some interesting stuff like people doing body art, tar-and-feathering themselves, one guy dressing up as a fish and hauling a dead fish on a line behind him. Inside the dead fish’s mouth was a BP cup.
Standing around, some girl came up to us and gave us signs, telling us to wave them at passing traffic. OK, sure, we’ll do it, why not? “Be Pissed and Honk” actually got a surprising amount of honks from the cars coming by. People in Miami are worried for sure. Bill was glad he got to swim in the ocean on South Beach and hopes to do the same at Siesta Key next weekend. While he still can. Anyway, check out some more photos, some with us in them, courtesy of Justin Namon at WorldRedEye.com.
