The Guadalupe River, picture courtesy of River Sports Tubes

Annual Team Tubing Trip

This past Saturday, the entire swimming and diving team went on a tubing day trip to the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels. There was about sixty of us including athletes, coaches, and family.

After an early morning practice and breakfast at Mabee, we all piled into a charter bus waiting for us in front of the Bell Center. It was a cloudy day, but everyone was still animatedly excited to get out into the river.

About 45 minutes later, we pull up to the Rockin’ R Tubing rental place and receive a ‘tubing orientation’: basically, the dos and don’ts of tubing and how to have a good time. As soon as that was over, everyone rushed over to the tubes and then into the water.

BURR! We soon found out that the water was freezing! However, since we were aquatic athletes, this didn’t bother us for long and the two-hour float began.

The float was tons of fun and included multiple rope swings, rapids, and water falls. Towards the end, it began to rain. It really didn’t dampen our spirits though (the rain was much warmer than the water!). Then came the final attraction of the float: the tree climb. A couple of us, including me, were brave enough to climb up the tall tree over the water as the rain poured down. Jumping from such a height was a wonderful burst of exhilaration.

After the tree climb, we finally made it to the end of the float and climbed onto the beach where the Rockin’ R buses took us back to our charter bus.

Once everyone was warm and dry, our next stop was Rudy’s BBQ in Gruene, TX. The whole team accumulated one big hungry tab, and then we feasted.

On the ride back, most took naps after this fun but tiring trip. In fact, I took three that day!

This annual tubing trip is just one of the many awesome trips the swim team organizes. It was a good way to bond and to get to know each other better as our training season gets underway.

Next on our agenda will the 5K open water swim in Lake Travis, TX. Til then, adios!