Steve Henson: DreamBoy

Steve Henson

Photography by Catalina Video

I know the quality of these shots aren't great, to be expected from scans from a magazine from the eighties.  There was something about them however, that I was really drawn to and wanted to share as many as I could find and enlarge from the August 1986 issue of Torso Magazine.

The series features Steve hanging and around and playing in a backyard pool.  Although he's naked in some images, in most of them, he's wearing a pair of white briefs.  Those wet briefs brought back a flood of memories from high school.  I think for many, our first introduction to 'sort of' skinning dipping came from swimming in our underwear.

For me, this happened on several occasion when I was in my mid to late teens.  Often, on hot summer nights, when I was hanging out friends, someone would suggest we go to the 'rock'.  The rock wasn't really a place, but the name we used for the location we often went swimming.  It was a small inlet at the end of a lake with a tall rock on the side of hill.  The thrill was to climb onto the rock and jump off into the water.

I only remember going to the rock once during the day, most of my visits were at night, and very spontaneous.  They usually occurred when one of my friends was bored and suggested we head to the rock.  Because it wasn't planned, none of had bathing suits with us.  Because it was usually late at night, we couldn't go home and grab them without having to explain to our parents why we wanted our bathing suit at 11pm on a Friday night.   The 'rock' could be dangerous as several kids were hurt jumping in late at night.  Most were high or drunk, and most parents would not have supported us going. 

Although it was often a group of guys, sometimes there were girls along as well.  This meant that most of us, stripped down to our undies for our jump off the rock into the cool water.  Many of the guys wore boxers, which wasn't a big deal.  I however, along with a few others, were usually wearing just briefs.  As you all know I'm sure, wet briefs don't hide much.  I never wore white briefs, but the baby blue ones I usually had on were almost as transparent. 

At some point, when everyone was in the water, the routine was that someone, usually a guy, would yell underwear off.  We'd then all yank off our wet undies and hold them in the air to prove we were naked.  This happened when it was just the guys, and when there were girls with us as well.  We'd then swim around naked for awhile, naked, but without anyone really seeing anything.

Some of the guys walked out of the water naked, holding their hands or their undies over their junk.  Most of us put our underwear back on before heading to shore.  I remember a few times, having a friend point out that my briefs were pretty much see through, especially when there was plenty of moonlight.  Usually I didn't care, unless of course there was someone I was crushing over in the group, or when I was sporting a semi.

I have many fond memories of late summer nights wearing just my soaking wet briefs.  The feel of the wet undies was amazing when in the water, but not so great on the drive home.  Sometimes I'd take them off and just wear my pants home, but other nights, I just shoved my pants on over them and and was wet an uncomfortable on the drive home.  T

hen of course, once home, I'd go quickly to my room, peel them off, throw them in the hamper, and put on a clean, dry pair.   Most of these late night swims were followed a day or two  later with my mother asking me why my underwear were soaked when did the wash.   It was not too long after, I started doing my own laundry.