Roll On, Nude Skater, Roll On

PORTLAND, OREGON – A note to all you quizzical commuters and tourists who’ve been doing double-takes on the waterfront recently:

Yes, that woman who whizzed by you on in-line skates was mostly naked.

Yes, she did seem quite pleased about it.

No, she wasn’t breaking the law.

Over the past week or so, Portland police have received a flurry of 9-1-1 calls about Gennifer Moss, aka Earth Friend Gen, an organic-food-loving, enlightenment-espousing “yellow earth warrior.” (No, we’re not sure what that is.)

Moss made news this summer when she asked to skate naked in Ashland’s Fourth of July parade. A California native, she’s apparently visiting Portland this month. Judging by the big grin on her face as she skated at Tom McCall Waterfront Park during one recent rush hour, she was enjoying herself immensely.

So, it seems, are the people who see her glide by, sometimes fully nude, brown hair flying. When police caught up with Moss — after a call, oddly enough, from a group of construction workers — the late-afternoon crowd booed them.

“We confronted her and told her that she couldn’t expose her genitalia,” said police spokeswoman Cathe Kent. “She complied.”

In other words, she whipped out a string bikini bottom and continued on her only slightly less Lady Godiva-like way.

Police have continued to get calls. It’s actually kind of sweet, they say: Most callers aren’t angry, but rather concerned for her safety.

This is Portland, after all.

Courtesy OregonLive.com