Flying High and Feeling Free in Calif.

But the beach draws a more interesting line in the sand. On the state-regulated side, straight couples and families usually sunbathe on the south end, while gay men have the run of the north end. Net posts for a volleyball game can be found somewhere along the DMZ.

"There was this gay baseball team who lost in a tournament out in El Cajon -- they showed up and so we had some drop-in games with them," Lauren said of a recent volleyball showdown. "They were really good! Perhaps they were riled up about losing the baseball game earlier."

On the gay side, Richard and his partner, Jack, were wrapping prosciutto over pieces of melon when I met them. They said they sometimes like to picnic on the straight side because more people tend to sunbathe nude there, which makes the couple feel more at home. Jack estimated 80 percent nudity among straights and 50 percent among gay men.

July and August are the beach's busiest months, though nothing, said Lauren and Jim, compares to the crowds they saw in the late 1970s and early '80s, when it was packed even on weekdays.

Jim quietly looked off into the waves -- a moment, perhaps, of seeing long-lost silhouettes frolicking again beneath a gold-red sky. "Now," he said, "it's nothing how it used to be."

On my final walk along the shore, I decided to leave my own footprints in the sand's history. I dropped my backpack on a fairly open stretch of the beach, far away from the people I spoke to that day, and pulled down my shorts before I took off my shirt. With my hands on my hips, I stood there for a moment looking at the ocean. I expected to feel the wind and the sunlight differently, as if every inch of my skin and soul had been cleanshaven. I expected an awakening.

As I waited, a clothed older couple stared at me as they walked by. I gave them a half-hearted, slightly annoyed smile. (Gawkers!) Eventually I folded my arms in front, astonished at how unremarkable being naked was.

I shrugged my shoulders, spread my towel over the sand and, just as I was pulling out a couple of magazines from my backpack, a man on a red hang glider zoomed above me -- making flying, too, look like the most natural thing a person could do.

-- Tommy Nguyen

Black's Beach, also called Torrey Pines State Beach, lies near the northwest shoulder of the University of California at San Diego campus, off Torrey Pines Scenic Drive. Look for the gliderport sign. Free parking.