SCOTT--MY FAVORITE NAKED COUCH SURFER

Pouring a glass of Merlot into a stemless wine glass, a tall and burly dark-haired man says to "say when" while looking back at his new houseguest. The man, Scott Porter, wearing no shirt, no pants, and no shoes--is completely nude. He is pouring a second glass of wine for his guest, Alex Lehmann, who is staying on Scott's couch for a few days while traveling through the United States.

Scott, one of the 1,469,958 people who have joined the couchsurfing.com network, started riding the couch-surfing wave in October of 2007. The non-profit website is dedicated to making connections, not just finding a free place to stay. The website, which updates statistics hourly, currently states that there have been 1,704,799 friendships created from using the website. Because Scott is very active in the San Francisco couch-surfing scene, he encounters many foreigners who are eager to have a unique experience (San Francisco is the tenth most popular city to couch-surf in the world).

Walking into Scott’s apartment you can see that he is a born host. With a couple hundred of wine bottles in multiple racks, sake bottles covering his kitchen countertops, and a large photography studio that takes up a large portion of his studio apartment, the forty-six year old man has shared his passions with more than one hundred couch-surfers, and this number continually grows.

Scott, who has recently moved to Oakland from San Francisco, is a nudist photographer, which is quickly evident once you set foot in his roomy and open downtown studio apartment. From the time he opens his door wearing only his very small black shorts, a courtesy he gives to those he has not met before, you can feel the “clothing optional” atmosphere. Many nude photographs matted and framed hang along his living room walls behind his large vinyl blue couch, which has a pull out bed that couch-surfers stay on.

While he is an extremely active member of couch-surfers, he also enjoys wine and sake, which often overlap with couch-surfers and serves as a nice icebreaker. “I’m kind of a shy person until I get some sake or wine into me,” he says. Couch-surfers, as well as nudists, are often stereotyped as very outlandish and open with everyone, and although Scott has such a friendly and open demeanor, his behavior is anything but eccentric. While he does offer guests some of his wine and sake, generally couch-surfers pay their own way when it comes to travel necessities like food, beverages, and toiletries.

Sipping on a glass of red wine, Scott tells the story of one of his favorite couch-surfers, a woman from Spain whose family owns a vineyard. She stayed with him during a Spanish wine exposition in San Francisco, so Scott got into the event for free. “That wasn’t even the best part,” his mouth grins from side to side as he remembers the day. Winemakers don’t like to ship partial cases back home, so he got the “leftovers” of the festival. Seventy bottles of free Spanish wines just for knowing that one couch-surfer.

Just as he enjoys the couch-surfers he hosts, Scott’s home is a popular request for travelers. His home is a “clothing optional” place, and gives travelers who are looking for an extremely unique experience an interesting time. “When I put up that I am a nudist, I thought nobody would want to stay with me, but I started getting like a hundred requests a day,” he says about his relaxed home.

Even though many people stay with Scott for the nudist perspective, some couch-surfers just want to stay with someone who will open up their home and mind to visitors, so that they leave with great memories. Thirty-nine year old Maria Carmela Marino from Italy, who joined couch-surfers in August of 2007, said that one of her favorite parts of couch-surfing with Scott was, “The delicious duck in Korean sauce he cooked for Christmas, which seems to have become a tradition!”

Some couch-surfers, like Chris Cosner, are fairly local and only looking to stay on someone’s couch for one night, and end up having more fun than they originally anticipated. Chris, a twenty-four year old couch-surfer from Stockton, stayed with Scott one night for a naked wine and cheese party, where he unexpectedly “became a naked couch-surfer.”

Scott, who attends many San Francisco Underground (SF Couch-Surfing Group) events, loves that couch-surfers are a unique kind of traveler. “It takes an open mind to be a couch-surfer and to stay on a strangers couch,” he says. Because he is a very active member in the Bay Area couch-surfing scene, he has met all the couch-surfing staff, including the founder, CFO, and Base-Camp members. Scott says that knowing them is helpful in case something happens—you know exactly who to contact to fix the situation.

A folder on Scott's couch-surfing profile shows a folder of pictures labeled naked couch-surfers. A lot of couch-surfers started staying with him because they have always been curious about how a nudist lives, and many started asking Scott if he would take a nude photograph of them. Because he has his own studio in his apartment, he has been able to take nude photographs of any couch-surfer that wants to, some even stay longer than planned just to take the picture. He has taken eighty-two nude couch-surfing photographs so far, all posted on the couch-surfers website, and plans on taking more. “I love when people are excited about what I do and are interesting in participating,” Scott says.