Updated September 28, 2026
Pickleball has produced a lot of strange sub-cultures on its way to becoming America’s fastest-growing sport, but nude pickleball is the one that stops people mid-scroll. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. Yes, people are genuinely doing it. And yes, they are keeping score.
Yes, and it is more organised than the joke suggests. Cypress Cove, a clothing-optional resort in Kissimmee, Florida, runs six dedicated pickleball courts with 172 dues-paying members playing seven days a week. It is legal because it happens on private clothing-optional property, not in public. The Partnership for Nude Recreation’s free club locator lists roughly 30 vetted clubs across 16 states.
Some find the idea bizarre. Others will tell you, with total sincerity, that it is the best way to play the game. What almost nobody realises is how organised it has quietly become — this is not three people messing about at a nudist camp. It is leagues, tournaments, dedicated courts, and dues.
Wait — is this actually a thing?
It is a much bigger thing than the giggle suggests.
Cypress Cove, a clothing-optional resort in Kissimmee, Florida, started playing fourteen years ago with chalk lines scratched onto a tennis court. Today it has six dedicated pickleball courts and 172 dues-paying members playing seven days a week. Mike Sullivan, a USA Pickleball ambassador who lives there, sums it up better than we could: “Pickleball is the biggest sport here by five times.”
Five times. Not the pool. Not tennis. Pickleball is the reason a lot of these people are there at all, and clothing-optional resorts across the country have noticed — courts are now a selling point in their advertising, and tournaments are on the calendar.
So the joke is real, it has a league table, and somebody is probably beating you at it right now with considerably less on.
Where can I play nude pickleball?
Not on your local municipal court, and this is the part where enthusiasm meets the law. Nude pickleball happens at private clothing-optional clubs and resorts — that is what makes it perfectly lawful, because you are on private property playing by its rules rather than testing a public decency ordinance.
The easiest way to find one is the Partnership for Nude Recreation club locator, a free directory of vetted clubs covering around thirty locations across Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Not every club has courts, so check the listing before you drive four hours on a hunch.
The two best-known for pickleball specifically:
- Cypress Cove — Kissimmee, Florida. Six courts, the 172-member club above, play every day.
- Laguna Del Sol — near Sacramento, California. Long-established, regular games.
Most clubs sell day passes. You do not have to join anything to find out whether this is for you.
Is playing pickleball naked legal?
At a private club, in the United States: yes. That is the whole reason these places exist and they have been operating for decades.
What is not legal is public nudity, which is governed state by state and city by city, and Canada is stricter than most of the US. Nobody at these clubs is arguing about this — the rule of thumb is simple. Go to a club, follow the club’s rules, and the question never comes up. Improvise on a park court and it very much will.
Reasons why people play nude pickleball
Ask around and you get three answers, over and over.
The tan. This is said with a straight face and it is the most common answer. Two hours of doubles is two hours of sun, and the tan lines situation resolves itself.
The freedom. No waistband, no shirt sticking to your back in a Florida August, nothing riding up when you lunge. Several converts describe the first game as strangely weightless, which sounds like nonsense until you have played in 95-degree humidity in a soaked cotton shirt.
The people. Naturist clubs are unusually friendly and unusually un-cliquey, and a 172-member club that plays daily is a better social scene than most people’s actual clubs. Nobody is checking your gear or your outfit, because there isn’t any. The pickleball is the point.
Tips for playing nude pickleball
Here is what nobody tells you, and what separates a good first visit from a sunburnt, awkward one. Three things change. Everything else about the sport is identical.
1. Bring a towel. This is not optional.
Every naturist club on earth has the same headline rule, and Cypress Cove states it in capitals: “Carry a towel with you at all times and ALWAYS SIT ON YOUR TOWEL for sanitary reasons.”
You will not be let off this one. It is also genuinely practical on a court, because you have no sleeve to wipe your face on and no shirt hem to dry your grip with — two things you do roughly forty times a game without noticing.
Get a quick-dry microfibre one rather than a bath towel: it packs to nothing, it does not sit damp and sour in your bag, and it costs less than a tube of balls. Bring two — one to sit on, one to play with — and you will look like you have done this before.
Quick-dry sport towels on Amazon
2. Sunscreen — and far more than you are currently imagining
This is the tip that saves your weekend, and it is the one every jokey article about nude pickleball leaves out.
The American Academy of Dermatology says an adult needs about one ounce — a full shot glass — to cover the body, at SPF 30 or higher, broad-spectrum and water resistant, reapplied every two hours and immediately after sweating.
Now do the arithmetic. A doubles session is two hours. Dressed, you are protecting your face, neck, arms and lower legs. Here you are protecting all of it, while sweating continuously, on skin that has most likely never seen a full afternoon of Florida sun in its life. That is a shot glass before you start and another at the changeover — so a normal bottle is a couple of visits, not a summer.
Use a sport formulation, not a beach lotion. Beach lotion runs into your eyes the first time you sweat, and there is no sleeve to fix that with.
Broad-spectrum sport sunscreen on Amazon
3. Wear proper court shoes
The one thing you are definitely still wearing deserves more thought than usual. Courts in Florida and Arizona get genuinely hot underfoot, and hard-court pickleball is brutally lateral — that is what wrecks ankles, whatever else you have on.
Running shoes are the wrong tool. They are built to roll forward and they fold under a hard sideways push. At 4.7 the shoe is the single biggest injury-risk factor I would flag to anyone playing several times a week, and it has nothing to do with the dress code. Our guide to pickleball shoes covers what actually separates them.
4. A bag, because you now have nowhere to put anything
Two towels, sunscreen, water, keys, paddle, and a phone that stays in the bag — clubs are strict about cameras, and Cypress Cove’s rule is blunt: “NEVER PHOTOGRAPH ANYONE WITHOUT PERMISSION.” Pockets are not among your options. A small sling bag solves the whole problem.
Pickleball sling bags on Amazon
5. Relax — the etiquette is friendlier than you expect
Clubs require conduct to be, in their words, “wholesome and non-sexual”. Staring is the one true faux pas. Everyone there got over the awkwardness in about ten minutes on their own first visit and they remember it, which is why first-timers get looked after rather than looked at.
Does any of this change what paddle you should buy?
Not in the slightest. Core thickness, face material, swing weight and twist weight behave exactly the same, and clubs running sanctioned events use the USA Pickleball approved list like everybody else.
If you are shopping, the current picks are in our guide to the best pickleball paddles, and the comparison most buyers land on is Six Zero Coral vs Selkirk OMNI. Spending under $100, start with the under-$100 roundup; brand new to the sport, the beginner paddle guide first.
One genuine trap before a club tournament: several 2026 flagship paddles are certified by UPA-A rather than USA Pickleball, and they are not interchangeable. We track which is which on the paddle certification page.
So — should you try it?
Nude pickleball is not for everyone, and there is no prize for talking yourself into it. But the barrier is a day pass and a towel, the courts are better than you would guess, and the people are playing seven days a week for a reason.
If you are curious enough to have read this far, you are probably curious enough to go. Take the sunscreen, take the towel, wear the shoes, and check the local rules before you get creative anywhere that is not a club. The pickleball, it turns out, is exactly the same game.
Frequently asked questions
Is nude pickleball a real thing?
Yes. Cypress Cove in Kissimmee, Florida began with chalk lines on a tennis court fourteen years ago, built two dedicated courts five years later and expanded to six courts five years ago. It now has 172 dues-paying members playing seven days a week. Mike Sullivan, a USA Pickleball ambassador who lives there, puts it plainly: “Pickleball is the biggest sport here by five times.”
Is playing pickleball naked legal?
On private clothing-optional property, yes — that is the whole reason it happens at resorts and member clubs rather than at a public park. Public nudity laws vary by state and municipality and none of this is an exemption from them. Play where the venue’s own rules permit it.
Where can I play nude pickleball?
At clothing-optional resorts and member clubs. The Partnership for Nude Recreation operates a free public club locator listing roughly 30 or more vetted member clubs across Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Cypress Cove in Florida and Laguna Del Sol near Sacramento, California are two of the established ones.
What are the rules at a nude pickleball court?
Cypress Cove’s published etiquette rules are representative: carry a towel at all times and always sit on your towel for sanitary reasons; no cameras in public areas without staff approval and never photograph anyone without permission; and behaviour must be “wholesome and non-sexual,” which prohibits sexually suggestive language, dancing, dress or displays of affection.
What should I bring to play nude pickleball?
A towel, shoes, and considerably more sunscreen than you think. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends most adults need about one ounce — roughly a shot glass — to cover the body, at SPF 30 or higher, broad-spectrum and water resistant, reapplied every two hours and immediately after swimming or sweating. Leave the camera in the car.