Tubing on the Comal River

If you've spent any time at all in the Texas Hill Country during the summer months you'll hear folks talk about "tubing". As in, "Hey, you wanna join us? We're going tubing this weekend." Before you shake your head and wonder about the mental state of folks in Central Texas, let me explain the concept of tubing. First of all, let's start with a picture of a "tube".

Now that we know what a tube is we can delve even deeper into a con­densed and abbre­vi­ated definition:

“Free-floating tub­ing often takes place on rivers and streams. The tube rid­ers are con­veyed by the cur­rent of the water. Peo­ple pad­dle with their hands to steer while groups of tubers often rope their tubes together cre­at­ing a large float­ing group. This gen­er­ally slows down the float but allows the group to pass food and drink around. Longer expe­di­tions often include tubes mounted with cool­ers for food and beverages.”

So in other words tub­ing looks like this:

I’ve lived in San Anto­nio since 2003 and almost from the begin­ning I would hear folks talk about tub­ing. I had a vague sense of what it was, but it wasn’t until I actu­ally went tub­ing that I truly under­stood the attraction.

Up until recently my floats have been on the wild and untamed Guadalupe River. How­ever, this year because of low rain­fall and drought con­di­tions we decided to give the Comal River a try. Let me tell you it was love at first site and by the time I was float­ing down river, I was hooked!

Here are a few help­ful tips to get you started:

Start off by stop­ping at one of the local River Out­fit­ters. You can bring your own tube and man­age a two car drop off/pick up plan. In my time as a tuber, I have been very happy using the ser­vices of the River Out­fit­ters. In doing so, I am sup­port­ing the local econ­omy while mak­ing my float expe­ri­ence fun and hassle-free. Price ranges any­where from $14-$20 depend­ing on whether the tube you select has an attached bot­tom or is au nat­ural. I highly rec­om­mend opt­ing for a tube with a bot­tom. Other than being a place to rest your bot­tom, It has the added ben­e­fit of being a place you can hold your extra gear.

We always rent an extra tube for our ice chest to hold ice cold bev­er­ages and sand­wich fix­ings. Being in the sun for a few hours has a ten­dency to make you hun­gry so it’s always a good idea to take some food along. Before you leave the River Out­fit­ters, make sure you grab some rope and a trash bag. You’ll want to tie that ice chest tube to your group and of course we want to keep the river clean so a trash bag is a must.

The last thing you’ll need before you leave is plenty of sun block. The water is as ice cold as the sun is hot. After a day of fun the last thing you want is a nasty sun­burn. I won’t go into the details about how I know this to be true.

Now that I’ve given you my tips for a suc­cess­ful river float, let’s get back to my recent Comal River experience:

The water was cold and flow­ing which meant I didn’t have to pad­dle in order to keep mov­ing. In the triple digit heat we’ve had recently this was exactly what we needed. One of the first things I noticed about the Comal River was it’s neat and clean appear­ance. The next thing I noticed was how orga­nized the tub­ing expe­ri­ence was. I was glad to see Park Police were on hand to keep folks safe and secure.

I also noticed signs along the river let­ting us know what was com­ing ahead. No sur­prises meant we could relax and enjoy our­selves instead of being con­cerned with unex­pected rapids or drops. What was espe­cially impres­sive was see­ing Life Guards before and after the River Chute. We were able to enjoy the excite­ment of going down the fast rush­ing water chute know­ing there were trained respon­ders on hand.

When we were done with our 2 1/2 hour float we picked up our tubes and headed to the wait­ing River Out­fit­ter vehi­cles. They loaded our tubes and drove us back to the start­ing point. We could pack up and go home or for the bold and the brave go for another round of float­ing. Nat­u­rally, we jumped right back in the ice cold water and went for round two.

The Comal River float winds through the City of New Braun­fels, TX in the Heart of the Hill Coun­try. Our fam­ily had such a won­der­ful time last week­end. So much so that the Comal River will be our next river des­ti­na­tion. The good thing is that we won’t have to wait long. We’ll be part of the folks flock­ing to the Comal River this 4th of July week­end. I can think of no bet­ter way to cel­e­brate Inde­pen­dence Day Week­end than to relax and enjoy the free­dom of a river float. Wave if you see me there. I’ll be the one with the water gun help­ing keep folks cool.

Cheers!

UPDATE:
If you want to have even more fun, check out the other activ­i­ties on the list. Other San Anto­nio blog­gers have pro­vided their take on some of the best activ­i­ties in the area.

River float image by Texas Tubes