I had a horrible time in New Braunsfels. If you must go, call the New Braunsfels Plice Dept first and find out what the latest laws are. We called the tube rental company first to find out all the rules and did not get the whole picture. The business people and river are nice but the police and city government are crazy. I got a $300 ticket for taking a beer can to the trashcan on the public tube exit. I am not some rowdy college student and I am a very light drinker. I brought only water and only drank a total of 1/2 beer on the river that someone shared with me. I would have thought that I and my friends, all of us over 40, are just the type the City would want as customers but apparently not. There is some new ordinance about drinking in the public park on the shore but the cops are taking it to extremes because of a lawsuit. I know now that there is a big political fight going there where the City is cracking down on the tubers. The river is lined with cops who will ticket you on the river while you are in your tube. They have passed petty ordinances on the size of coolers, etc. You can drink alcohol on the river but put two feet on the shore with a drink in your hand and you are ticketed up to $500 for having an open container of alcohol. The cops lurk on the tube exit to bust people getting out of their tubes with a beer can in their hands. Plus these ordinances carry a criminal charge, a Class C Misdemeanor. I feel sorry for the business owners in New Braunfels but I can not with a clear conscience advise anyone to tube that river. There is too much risk you will be falsely accused of some petty crime, even if you are a light drinker as I am. There is a big lawsuit going on over these issues and it%26#39;s best to stay away until it%26#39;s over unless you want to get caught up in the crossfire. Even the State of Texas Attorney General may step because there has been so much controversy. There are other rivers in the area which are just as good for tubing and with governments that are much friendlier and welcoming. With the lawsuit and current government in New Braunsfels the cops are going to extremes trying to prove their point. There is also some kind of Verbal Morality Act which carries a huge fine on the river. Maybe it%26#39;s a great place for Girl Scouts but I will not go again.
My tubing trip to BraunfelsYIKES!! I just located this ordinance: http://www.nbcham.org/opencontainer.htm
That%26#39;s kind of akin to a speed trap isn%26#39;t it? There are ordinances that say you can have one or two 6 packs in coolers on the river, but then when you step out at a tubing exit you can be arrested on the way to the trash can to throw one away?!! I mean, really! That and the $300 fine are absurd. I knew about the cooler laws but had not heard of this. There is a long list of parks in my link. Were there warning signs? How on earth would a visitor know unless it was well signed? Maybe you should have just dumped your empties in the river rather than set foot on solid ground with it?
The Righteous Right are alive and well in New Braunfels it seems. There was a problem I understand, but it seems they went way overboard in correcting it.
My tubing trip to BraunfelsIt%26#39;s unfortunate that the Guadalupe has come to this.. many years back, you could tube or run it in a canoe, have lots of areas to pull out , rest and enjoy nature unhassled....I%26#39;m old enough to remember those days long since gone.... now it%26#39;s a congested mess of people trying to make a buck.. My family started going to the Frio in Concan about 10 years ago..Granted, it%26#39;s not white water.. but it%26#39;s crystal clear, lots of unincorporated LAND along the shores and you can sit back in your tube, drink a beer and enjoy not being hassled.. You might give it a try.. Neal%26#39;s Lodges is great although nothing fancy. The Frio is like the Guadalupe USED to be..... sorry you got caught up in the local politics in NB..... I%26#39;d be fighting that fine.......dh
OK lets look at it from the residents point of view. You spend million(S) of dollars to have a dream home. Then, you get thousands of people floating by your nice property. Out of those thousands, dozens stop by leaving trash, using the bathroom, screaming and yelling. They%26#39;re drunk, and you%26#39;re worried someone might get hurt, they might even come on to your property and get hurt and you knows what that means - lawsuit. You children are playing in their own yard and they get to witness all of this, plus a little public nudity, not to mention they%26#39;ll learn every four-letter word you%26#39;ve worked so hard to block on cable and the internet. Now you%26#39;re trying to leave your driveway and head to the grocery store and those same disrespectful, loud, and obnoxious folks are on the shuttles or scarier yet, driving their own cars. You figure the best course is to pressure your city council member add more restrictions to the river to try to cut down on the craziness.
it only takes a few bad apples to spoil it for the whole bunch unfortunately. the law is a strange one, and it sounds like the ultimate attempt is to control rowdiness and littering, which I applaud. however, i think $300 is too stiff for one beer. lisitpc, i feel your frustration and anger. perhaps the warnings are not posted or communicated properly about open containers. sometimes i think the cops overreact to the letter of the law without surveying the entire situation....it%26#39;s just going to drive the tourists away... at least folks like lisitpc, the 200,000 college kids within an hour of the Guadalupe and the rest of us who like to drink a cold beer whilst tubing.........i guess Gruene is going after the Disney crowd. : - )
After being told by the cop that there were signs all over the place, I went back down to look for them and take photographs. I would post them here if I knew how. There are two signs at the public exit on the Comal, but they are small and close to the waterline. They are so low they are easily obscured by other tubers. There is a giant ';Exit'; sign hanging high above the river but the Open Container signs are smaller and lower where they are easily missed by anyone in a tube. Especially with all the crowding and confusion at the tube exit. Funny the signs are not posted high where they are easily seen. I shared one beer with a friend on the river then some kid handed me another. I had only taken a few sips out of it. Like I say, I am a very light drinker and especially do not like drinking very much during the day. Even if I had seen the signs, it would never occur to me to pour beer into the river. We had very carefully made certain we left no trash in the river, even cigarette butts, so I just do not have the mindset to pollute the river with beer. I live in Austin, where one can not drink alcohol in the parks, or in your car, or walking down the street which I just learned in legal in NB. What could my intention have been other than throwing the beer into the trash? The NB cops were waiting at the top of the stairs just before the trashcans. if they had been good and kind people, they would have been down at the waterline, warning people. I guess there is less profit in that. There were two kind and helpful Park Rangers at the bottom of the stairs doing just that, but they missed me. Apparently if you have alcohol, you are expected to drink all of it and risk Public Intoxication, or pollute the river, or try to sneak it into the trashcan. I contacted one of the lawyers in the lawsuit and he told me they have so many defendants in the suit they don%26#39;t need any more. They get daily calls from outraged tourists and just from word of mouth. I honestly do not recommend anyone going there. The atmosphere with all the cops ruins the whole experience. I didn%26#39;t observe that the people on the river were particularly rowdy. Apparently the problem has been solved, but some Councilman named Valentine is an anti-drinker and wants to eliminate all drinking on the river and I guess all tubing on the river. I understand they do not want kids hanging out in the park having keg parties. A rational thing to do is to post a large sign near the trashcans saying ';No Alcohol Beyond This Point,'; but, like I say, all reason and rationality and kindness has been dispensed with during this political fight. i
By the way. the fine is $309. Potentially it%26#39;s up to $500 at the Judge%26#39;s discretion. Plus, it%26#39;s a Class C Misdemeanor, the same as Public Intoxication. And it will show up in any background check. I%26#39;ve never been arrested or charged with a crime in my life. I thought Prohibition was over but it%26#39;s clear it%26#39;s coming back.
Lisitpc, thanks for the warning. Am a 36 year old attorney married to a CPA (not rowdy college kids) who were thinking about making another annual trip to New Braunsfels. After reading your report I won%26#39;t even consider going there again. I guess that New Braunsfels doesn%26#39;t need the money that the 8 of us in our RV%26#39;s there planned on bringing to the local community.
Rio Frio, here we come......
I graduated from SWT in the late 90%26#39;s and I have tried to keep it a yearly tradition to go float the river, at least once a year, and from back when I was in school I remember hearing all these crazy rumors of New Braunfel’s City Council trying to pass new law which would effect the amount of alcohol consumption on the river. After my first year at school I learned to dismiss all of these rumors and after hearing what I thought was a rumor again this year, I simply dismissed it as fictitious, but it appears that this year I was wrong. I was preparing to go to Canyon Lake next weekend, as my wife and her family were going to borrow a friends lake house, and Saturday we planned to head on over to float the river. In an effort to assure myself that no new law had passed, I did a search on the web and found this write up plus a few others. I have read both sides arguments and although I am a little biased I still have to side with the thought that these new laws/restrictions are going to really effect the businesses of New Braunfels. As many have said, I could care less about the beer bongs and such. I mean I did love to have a few jello shots here and there but for the most part I could do with out that stuff. The main issue is the cooler size. Basically, you are forcing everyone to have their own cooler and that would include kids because there is no way you can accommodate a large family with the size limits on coolers, which I have been advised of. I can understand trying to make the river more kid friendly but come on. Of course, my problem is basically what they are trying to restrict and that is beer consumption, well that is to a point. It is just not feasible to force a group to carry multiple ice chest. I mean on a hot, Texas day you have to have tons of ice and of course you want to have some sandwich stuff, with a few waters and then some beer. However, I have not seen the dimensions of the coolers that they will allow but have heard that you can only fit a 12 pack. That is ridiculous. Come on, I am a 30 year old lawyer who just wants to bring his family and friends down to have a good time. We are not going to raise hell, we are adults. Like one of the other writers said, I feel that they are cutting their own throat by enforcing the new cooler restrictions. We are the people, who come down and rent houses, cabins and such and gladly spend money in the community, not the college kids who are skipping a meal so they can afford a 12 pack of Schlitz.
Well it looks like next weekend, we are staying at Canyon Lake and will be going to the frio to ride the river for now on. Finally, could someone post where I can find the city ordinances on this matter, I have not had any luck and would like to review them. Obviously, they are not making this too readily available to the public, which leaves you to believe that there does exist some concern as to these changes effecting tourism. I think there will have to be some changes and if not I hope people will start going else where or further up river because that is my intentions.
The restrictions are only on the Comal, inside the New Braunfels city limits. Drinking and ice chests of all kinds are still allowed on the Guadalupe.
Actually, within the city limits of New Braunfels, there are rules which apply to the Guadaloupe as well and include restrictions on cooler size. This chart is pretty good at comparing the two rivers and rules governing them.
riversportstubes.com/Guadalupe_and_Comal_Riv…
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