NEW BRAUNFELS – With the unofficial end of summer approaching, New Braunfels tubing outfitters hope they can make a big splash this holiday weekend.
Though tubing can last into the fall, Corner Tubes owner Matthew Hoyt calls Labor Day weekend a “bookend” for the bulk of the season.
“There’s certainly pressure on it,” Hoyt said about having a successful holiday weekend, “but we’re not going to make up July. We lost July.”
The July 4 holiday weekend is one of the busiest weekends of the year for tubing. But as the river rose with heavy rains, dropping water clarity with it, New Braunfels closed the Comal River for recreation on Saturday, July 5. It did not reopen the river until Wednesday, July 9.
“Anytime you have to close... it’s never a good feeling,“ said Blake Reno, the manager at Texas Tubes. ”You only get four to five months to really make your money for 12 months’ worth of bills."
Even after the river reopened, Hoyt said business didn’t return right away. He believes that was part of the aftermath of the deadly July 4 flooding in Kerr County.
Hoyt believes there was “stigma” over the region for people from other parts of the state who may not have realized the worst of the flooding was on another river, the Guadalupe.
“It’s safe here,” Hoyt said. “I don’t know the word got around that it’s three counties, over 100 miles away.”
Hoyt thinks “online activity” may also have some people worried about the Comal’s flow rate. He also suggested would-be visitors may have suffered their own losses in the flooding or were helping with recovery.
“There’s also just, do you want to go to the river and put this online at the time when some folks have been, you know, really lost everything?” Hoyt said.
Reno said safety had been a big concern for their visitors.
“We got a lot of phone calls about ‘Is the river clean?’” Reno said. “You know, debris being in the water. There’s always those concerns and I think that had the most to do with it.”
“The city of New Braunfels does really well cleaning out the river,” Reno continued. “They’re not letting us open if it’s not safe.”
Reno said the rain also meant other rivers and lakes filled up, giving tubers other options for water recreation.
The latest forecast for New Braunfels on the Labor Day weekend includes temperatures into the 90s all three days, but also has chances for rain on Saturday and Sunday.
Still, Hoyt and Reno are optimistic the weather will stay nice.
Even if it rains, Reno said, “you’re gonna be wet anyway. Come out. Enjoy the water.”
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