They are just fleecing the tourists who come to float their river.  We do the same thing except we charge more here.

Good idea?  It depends on your perspective.  If you live in New Braunfels and see your city get a bunch of free money that can be wasted by the politicians in lieu of your money, it is a good idea.  If you rent tubes for a living, any increase in cost will shave off a few percentage points of your business, so that's a bad idea.  If you are paying the $1.25, you are just the tax payer and no one cares what you think.

Over all, the $1.25 is no big deal.  Gas is so expensive it is going to cost a lot more extra than the $1.25 anyway.  It is hard to say what this will do to business on those rivers in New Braunfels.  People who want to float down a river in a big slug of beer piss don't think like me anyway.

I was told that the river in New Braunfels is always full of hooligans and they are usually  rowdy and drinking a lot of beer.  That is not the kind of place for a Christian person.  I was surprised to hear that.  Our own Priest went there with some of his friends from the men's club he goes to.  I want to be clear that I am not talking about the kind of men's club that has naked women.  Our priest would never go to a place like that.  This is just the kind of club where men go to have a beer after work.  No women there- just the men.  I am pretty sure they took a few  of those beer with them to swim with in the river.  That's OK.  No one should get drunk but it is OK for men to have 1 or 2 beers.  Sometimes I have one myself.  Anyway, they were in the river and a young woman showed them her private parts.  He said it was awful and they left right away to come back home.  None of the people in our parish go there.  I think some of the young men are tempted though.  That is terrible.  A lot of the people who go there are going to float down that river right into Hell.  I think it should be closed up and all of those people should be sent away.

What happened to all those other posts?

Why do the bible thumpers have to bring religion into EVERY blog on this site?  Carmen, if you can't stay on topic without injecting your useless religious babble, please don't waste the space with a post.

As far as the topic goes -  This fee is just another deterrent to rid the high school and college kids from tubing down the Guadalupe below the dam, and the Comal.  The only people in New Braunfels who complain about these people are the old farts who've lived there since the town was founded, and the people who bought property directly on the river.  They want to keep both rivers to themselves.  

The rules on the sections of the river that goes through town are so restrictive, I wouldn't even waste my time going there anymore.  I've tubed down there so many times in the past, I can't count them all.  Yes, there were some rowdy and overbearing people on the river, but I never experienced any violence or problems myself.  It kind of made the boring parts of the river (where the current was slow) more exciting.  Reminded me of going to NIOSA during Fiesta.  Now, it's just a pain to go.  You're limited to some small cooler, and can only take one.  I used to take one cooler for my drinks, and another cooler for food, snacks, and a dry place to put your keys, wallet, or money.  So now you either have to die of thirst (unless you buy the overpriced drinks from the people who own the river property, and wanted these ridiculous rules created.  Hmmm, wonder why that was - MAYBE FOR MONEY) so you can keep your personal belongings dry, or you take drinks and have to spend even more money renting a locker or finding some place to put your keys while you're tubing.  Then of course, you can't even play music, or yell at your friends who may be further down the river than you, or the Noise Patrol will write you a ticket.  Which is another good question - are you required to take ID with you while you are tubing down the river?  If one of these Comal Sheriffs yanks you out of the water for some infraction, what will they do if you don't have an ID?  Do they haul you into jail, or do they trust you are giving them the correct information?  Yea, like that would happen -  "Yes sir, Forrest Gump is my name.  I came down here to tube your river from Alabama.  Of course I stopped to check on my Bubba Gump shrimpin' boats before I came here."

Bottom line, they can have their precious section of the river to enforce their Gestapo rules and restrictions.  I guarantee this new fee is the last straw for any regular tourists that made a trip there just to go tubing.  Give it a couple of years, and the residents will wonder why all the tube outfitters closed shop, and no one is coming to their town any longer to stay and shop.  Me personally, I just go tubing on the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake.  There's plenty of good rapids up there, and you don't have to worry about the idiots from New Braunfels ruining your trip.  "That's all I have to say about that...."

I have live on that river for a long time.  I been flooded twice but the worst thing I have had to put up with is tubers.  They get drunk and throw trash on my yard.  Before so many people start coming it was a nice place to live.  Now I am going to sell my house and move back to SA.

Good people dont go to that river to float and drink.  I play in Pastor Hagee's band at Cornerstone and that is the kind of people I like to spend time with.  New Braunfels is nice because the bill collectors dont usually come out that far but it isnt worth the trouble anymore.

It's a local, voluntary tax on a recreational activity. If the people of New Braunfels don't have a problem with it, then there is no problem.

If the river and surroundings are going to be clean and well maintained all the time, it is worthy. I always want to go to the river and have a ride  on those tubes, but all those negative comments about people drinking and littering especially in summer keep me from going.
I hope the do a good job, so I can take a ride!

What a shame!  A few bad apples have to ruin it for the rest of us.  Maybe they should call it a "hooligan tax"?