Guadalupe Tubing Essentials

I have lost a pair of Oakleys on the river. A friend of mine lost his wedding ring which was his grandfathers' (uh oh). Another friend of mine lost my Oakleys a few weeks ago on the river (he borrowed them but paid me back).

As for checklist...... ziploc bags, sunscreen, baseball cap, river shoes (I have an old pair of Nikes that I take), tons of ice, beer, water.

I never bring food but that is a good idea.

A friend of mine bought a $80 mp3 player/boombox a few years ago and we used to strap it on top of the cooler with some bungee cords onto the handles of the radio to the handles of the cooler. We could even open the cooler with the thing on. On rapids, we would put a little HEB bag on it.

It lasted 2 summers before dieing. Not sure the water was the best thing for it. Honestly we need to get a replacement. Having some music is always good.
 
So, just got back. Great time. No we do NOT bring glass on the river, we're not stupid. But our house was about 6 houses down from Gruene Rd and we sure as hell made a pit stop at the house to do some drinkin.

The cooler law is annoying but it's a lot better than what it was last year..

So my essentials are/were:
-Sunscreen! And make sure you put it on your knees legs and feet as well. My legs are fried.
-Hat, shades (nonexpensive, buy them at the gas station)
-coozie
-aqua socks ( i know they can look gay but they are SO much beeter than sandals trust me)

Thats all i had and it was perfect.
 
I paid $15/tube at Abbots there on the horseshoe last time. Good tubes with bottoms. Wasn't so bad, I didn't think, but did pay another $10 for my cooler tube. Still for four hours of fun and entertainment plus BYOB, not a bad value at all.
 
We've been going to River Sports Tubes (riversportstubes.com) near Canyon Lake to float the Guadalupe. I think it is $15 for the tube rental and that included free parking and the shuttle ride.

No cooler rules when floating from there, but every time there has been cops checking every cooler for glass. If you do the long float, brings lots of beer, water, and sunscreen. It took us over 6 hours.

Good times.
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Also if you go on Sundays, Rockin R has a coupon in the local paper for 50% tubes. Saved us about $100. Much props to the guy who gave me that paper.

Also: If you have a house on the river close to some rapids and your own tubes, riding the rapids at 3 in the morning is pretty fun
 
Aqua socks are a bit gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Seriously just use some old Nikes and you're set. After I have worn out my running shoes, they become my lawn mowing shoes. After they have worn that out, they become my river shoes. They have already made 1 trip to Inks Lake and 1 trip to the Guadalupe this summer.
 
I tubed a few weeks back on the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake. We were at the Guadalupe River State Park but went up river to Bergheim Campgrounds. It was a blast but LONG. Like 6 hours. There were 5 of us and we ran out of beer for the 1st time in my tubing life. I have no idea how b/c that cooler was full. There were like 6 waters and the rest was beer and ice. Still amazed.
 
I guess you could call the following essentials or maybe even tips. These tips are gathered from personal experience back in Memorial Day weekend of 1995.

We tubed on Sunday morning. It was about 10a and we were hungover and waiting to be called to get on the bus to take us up river....we were in Gruene. Since we were hungover we decided to have a beer or twelve and "that trunk was full of shiner bock and lonestar", we started drinking. TABC drove up in unmarked cars and started writing tix for drinking on public property on Sunday before noon.

So, tip 1....do not drink on Sunday before noon.

As we are being written tix (group of 10) passers by start asking what is going on. One friend in our group - a lawyer for TDJC - responds and I quote, "we were all having a good time until these two 'peckerwoods' showed up and spoiled it for us!" The "peckerwoods in question we writing MY ticket at time and were within earshot. She also proclaimed that she knew the judge in Comal County and we did not have to worry. That turned out to be bs as we all paid our $100 fines.

Tip 2...although she did NOT get in trouble for the disparing remark, don't call the cops/TABC peckerwoods.
 
I highly doubt THAT many people listen to Barry Manilow or Liza Minelli so you should not have to worry about that.
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atxbaby, did you get to go tubing this weekend at that place?

Hopefully it wasn't too packed, but there are some other good places in the area to rent tubes as well.

Hope it was fun!
 
So is Rockin' R informing people about the 16 quart cooler rule?

Last summer we tubed at Landa Falls down the Comal and the tube place were checking out the 16 quart coolers to us. It sounds like if you tube below Gruene on the Guadalupe that you do get into part of the NB city limits.
 
Speaking of tickets....

A couple of years ago we were tubing at Bezdek's up above the 2nd or 3rd crossing. We stopped at the Texaco at Loop 337 and River Road to get some more ice before getting there. As we got back into my buddy's truck, I was in the passenger seat and didn't put my seat belt back on. I always wear one, not sure why I didn't this time. Neither did the driver. We were going 30 or so on River Road and see a DPS. I reach for my seat belt to put it on; too late. Lights flash on.

"Peckerwood" then writes me and my friend up for seat belts. This was a $100+ ticket. Might have been like $150. I am SO happy that I had yet to crack a beer as I almost grabbed a beer from the back when we stopped.
 
Lovin, I did not get to check out River City, my friend that organized the trip had already made plans to meet another group of friends, so we ended up going to the main location of Rockin' R.

The staff at Rockin' R did tell us that the cops were writing $300 tickets for coolers over 16 quarts. One of our friends has a friend that had gotten a ticket for a 20 quart cooler the previous weekend.

Needless to say, I abandoned my 40+ quart cooler for a couple of 16 quart coolers. I think it was $23 for each cooler tube and you got to keep the coolers, so next time we can just rent one tube with a bottom and fit two coolers in the one tube.

This is what I brought:
-beer (obvi.)
-water
-koozie
-sunglasses with neck strap
-sunscreen
-lip balm with SPF
-fritos (to replenish sodium lost through sweating)

Tip for toobers: Do not jump onto the cage on the toob truck as it is driving off. My friend got arrested for a PI and it kind of put a damper on the whole day. But she is a grown woman and has to deal with her own poor judgment. Well, her husband has to deal with it too I guess. He wasn't on the trip with us and it sucked having to call him to tell him his wife was in jail.
 
That does blow.

So you paid $23 per cooler? Did you put both coolers in 1 tube or 1 cooler per tube? When we did Landa Falls, they had the cooler as part of the cooler tube rental so you basically got to use it free b/c we had to return it. We did jam 2 of those 16 quarts coolers in 1 tube. :) This might have made things more difficult for us in retrospect but whatever. The only thing is we tried to put so many beers in each of the coolers that we probably lacked a bit on the ice. Ha.
 
Definitely recommend Guadalupe over the Comal since their aren't all those rules.

On the upside the cooler rule is per person so each person in your party could take one if you have to.

I have used this page. It is divided up into which rental places have the new rules and which ones don't. It also has links to coupons so you don't have to try and find a local paper when you go.
The Link
 
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