HOPING FOR SMOOTHER WATERS
Tubing firms optimistic for a healthy 2021 season
NEW BRAUNFELS — Even though overcast skies and temperatures in the low 70s brought just a trickle of customers to kick off spring break over the weekend, Texas’ tubing outfitters are hopeful that the weeks and months to come will bring a chance to recover from the pandemic’s economic devastation.
This time last year, the coronavirus had just begun spreading across Texas, and tubing outfitters ramping up for the 2020 season were forced to shutter operations when Gov. Greg Abbott told Texans to stay at home unless taking part in essential activities. Tubing trips briefly resumed when the governor began to reopen businesses in the spring, but that didn’t last long: When COVID-19 infections soared after Memorial Day, Abbott shut down bars and tubing outfitters again the next month.
“Toward the end of season, they got a chance to open up again,” said Nathan Smith, who works at Comal Tubes in New Braunfels. “But recovering money at the end of the season is kind of hard when your busy days are at the beginning.”
Some of the tubing outfitters set up along the Comal River didn’t survive the pandemic, Smith said. But the businesses that did, such as Comal Tubes, are optimistic that 2021 will bring back some sense of
normalcy.
On a busy day during the summer, Comal Tubes supplies roughly 500 people with inner tubes and shuttles them to and from the river that runs through the heart of New Braunfels, Smith said. He served about 45 customers on Saturday and about 15 by 1 p.m. Sunday — a sliver of the demand during the peak season that unofficially starts around Memorial Day.
“The weather has been affecting it big time,” Smith said. “The last two days being kind of cold and overcast — not helping.”
Just a few tubers floated on the Comal River on Sunday afternoon, which in the summer can be so packed that tubes cover the entire surface of the water. But even with spring break's slow start, Smith said he was just happy to be back at work and enjoying the outdoors.
“I get up and I look outside and I'm like, ‘Who's going on the river today?' ” Smith said.
Smith's few customers were happy to be there, too. Tricie Bailey made the three-hour drive from her home near Houston on Sunday morning with 10 other family members, many of whom had never gone tubing before.
The trip marked their first big outing in more than a year, she said. After tubing, they planned to stay in the area to explore Natural Bridge Caverns and Ripley's Believe It or Not! in downtown San Antonio.
“We drove straight here,” Bailey said. “We're going to go tube first.”