West Coast pretty much anything goes. I was at the Santa Monica beach in Los Angeles and some lady was topless splashing around the surf for a photographer. She was flat chested and looked like a teenage boy at first. No one noticed probably cause you had to do a double take to see if it was a woman. I think the lifeguard was unsure also. Black's Beach in San Diego is totally awesome. Not as big as it was in the 1970s from what I hear. You will mostly see die-hard (no pun intended) there. What is the killer is the climb up from the beach. The stair will take the wind out of a professional athlete! The long way around down the beach and up is better from what I hear. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60750-d183742-Reviews-Black_s_Beach-San_Diego_California.html

Mary, I think some of the reason you don't see local jurisdictions putting that kind of energy into setting clothing and nudity policy is because people are mostly happy with the status quo. We all basically know that when you're out and about in public, you need to be dressed and when you're in a public swimming area, you wear a swimsuit. Even if there were no laws at all, most people would happily follow this formula. For example, if you work in office building, there is no reason the employer couldn't permit nudity indoors. The reason you don't hear about employers permitting nudity inside their offices is because the vast majority of people don't want that. Some members of this forum might want that, but this is a pretty niche community. The case of thongs is more interesting because permitting a bikini, but not a thong is pretty arbitrary. I suspect the overall trend is going to move towards greater permissiveness.

Mary, in North Carolina top freedom and thongs are legal anywhere in the state EXCEPT where a local jurisdiction has passed restrictions. In the case of Sunset Beach, the beach patrol is not enforcing the ordinance against because one woman’s cheeky suit is a man’s thong, and where do you do draw the line. SBPD MAY act on a complaint, but does not often. This was related to me by a deputy fire chief practicing with the department drone I spoke to recently on the beach. One other interesting fact he relayed to me is that under the flight rules they operate under, they are not allowed to use them for beach patrol enforcement. If the PD has one this may not be true. As to being top free and thonged on Bird Island outside of town limits, only Karen enforcement and being perved are hindrances.

Mary -- You have hit on a problem with most laws since they are usually written at the local level and use text and descriptions that are not used elsewhere. It would be ideal if standards could be applied in every place and all would be the same and mean the exact same thing. This should apply to all laws, not just swimwear or beach laws. The only standard I can think of right now that uses a universal term that is the same almost everywhere is speed limits. While the rate a car travels can very from place to place and in different locations (like school zones), the speed is pretty much stated in terms of "Miles per Hour" or "Kilometers per Hour". A mile is a mile, a kilometer is a kilometer and an hour is an hour. 55 miles per hour is the same in all states. So is 70 miles per hour or 20 miles per hour. I think maybe things should be left as they are. Let each place make new or revise laws when there is a local demand to to so. We really don't have to regulate everything. We don't really need whole-country rules when local people can already demand changes, either more conservative or more liberal based on that community. I think more energy should be used to set up a universal definition of swimwear or clothing exposure in general. What is a cheeky swimsuit, thong, etc. would be examples. Also exactly what is topfree and what is not. While most people would agree that topfree would apply when a person wears no top, what about skimpy tops that expose all but the nipples? Or what about see-thru or mesh tops? If a woman does not button her shirt, is she topfree? What about what some call open-side shirts. There also is the gender issues. Can or should different rules apply to each sex, or should they try or even demand that all laws apply to all people equally. Most places have a good definition of nudity, but even this is not uniform. Is exposure of the anus nude? How about a woman pulling her bottom into her pubic lips? Is that nude? How much of the "root" of a man's equipment can be exposed and not be nude? Can a man show some of his shaft and still not be nude, and if so how muchand what part?

If we could get uniform agreement on these type issues, then any revised or new laws passed could use the same terms and at least everyone would know what is or is not permitted without trying to figure out what each local term means.

Anyone see these "topless" bikini tops that have nipples printed on them...sort of a middle finger to wearing a top... Kylie Jenner wears one https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10890769/Kylie-Jenner-wears-naked-bikini-says-free-nipple.html

So this male British writer didn't want to be at a topless beach with his topwearing wife- and he's glad they're not popular?? https://www.pressreader.com/uk/features/20260806/281612427211243