Talk:Tubing (recreation)

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[edit] History

In 1967, I and several Sigma Tau fraternity brothers were partying at Lake Mohawk south-east of Canton Ohio, just outside of a small town of Melvern. It was a private man-made lake and we spent many weekends there skiing on the lake.

One afternoon, I found a large truck tire behind the garage and pulled the innertube out. I suggested that They tie the ski rope to the innertube, with the handle tied above the tube.

It did'nt take long before our speed got up to skiing speed, whipping around the corners at 60 miles an hour. When I finished the maiden ride around the lake, I discovered that my nipple were bleeding from the water rushing between the two stretched out sides of the tube. So, we learned real quick to put our life jackets on backwards to protect us.

We would actually hug the two sides of the tube with our elbows, when they came together at high speed and could use them as a steering devise. Since it ran like a catamaran, we could lean to the right and it would go right. Many times, our bodies would fly up in the air, and the tube would shoot out from under us, and our bodies would bounce off the water, giving us one more chance to grab on to the tube.

We got up at 6 in the morning to get to the glass surfaced water to run the lake on a whisper quite tapping of the water beneath us. I didn't, but one of my frat brothers lengthened the handle end of the rope and actually stood up on the tube to ride.

By the end of the weekend, Monday, there were 8-10 boats out on different parts of the lake, pulling there kids along behind their boat. One 23' boat driving mother was so excited to see her 10 yr old son riding behind her, she didn't see us stuck in the middle of the lake trying to fix the ropes on the steering wheel of the boat we were in.

I joked, that boat, although a quarter mile away, is comming right at us. It kept comming, it's bow high in the air, couldn't see anyone. Sure enough, it cut us right in two. One cousin was under the dash working on the ropes with his legs hanging over the back of the bench seat, and the propeller cut right across his shins. A few stiches, and he was ok.

The boat began to sink, and someone latched onto the bow sticking 6" out of the water and towed us to shore. The lady that hit us didn't realize what she had done, and asked if we needed help.

The next day, we went over and fixed her bent prop.

So many memories of Lake Mohawk when we were in College at Toledo Universty. Our Frat was Sigma Tau from 1964-1970.

Does anyone have any earlier stories about tubing? It was 15 years or so before I saw tubing in the main stream, and really don't know if it sprang from that time or rekindled on its own.

Trig Simon, Toledo Ohio

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tubing"

[edit] As a sport

I added this section, not sure if it's the right name for what i'm trying to describe. basically I just don't think it's right for more than half the article to be given over to "safety." Battle Ape 08:14, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if it could really be called a "sport" as there is no competitive aspect to it nor a set of rules. It's more of "recreational activity".--Daveswagon 08:23, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
It's be easy to get a great extreme sport out of it if someone tried, though... especially with those new gliding manta ray things. Battle Ape 06:34, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

If anyone knows of any major waterparks or ski resorts that have tubing courses as well as a website that mentions this (or even better, has pictures) please post those links here so the best ones can be selected and added to the article as sources. If anyone can find an actual newspaper article about such things, obviously that would be preferable.--Daveswagon 01:23, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Waterbom Park in Bali had one of those "slow river" type tibe rides when I last went there: http://www.waterbom.com/ They have a website but not a Wikipedia article. Battle Ape 06:37, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] River Tube "Pole Trucks"

I was looking at this article for information and pictures pertaining to "pole trucks" used by commercial river tubing outfitters to haul river tubes from the outfitter's post to the put-in and/or from the take-out to the outfitter's post. I am uncertain as to if a pole truck may also include modified trailers, but the bacis concept that I perceive is that the pole truck utilizes poles running parallel with the bed of the truck or trailer (likely pvc pipe or similar material) and over that the river tubes are slid over and then secured in place prior to transport.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.129.70.195 (talk • contribs)

...tubes are inflatable. What would be the purpose of such a truck? Battle Ape 07:16, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
It sounds like the truck is used to transport tubes back upstream so they can be ridden down river again. Deflating and inflating them over and over again in a single day would be a hassle.
Anyway, unless this kind of truck is common in the "tubing industry" and there is some kind of source that can be cited about them, this shouldn't be added to the article.--Daveswagon 07:23, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Butthole Surfers?

Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and delete that paragraph. Somehow, I don't find a local nickname for tubers, or a "San Antonio area band" to be relevant to the rest of the world. I'm deleting these sentences. MKultra 19:02, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Snow tubing

Due to the rapidly increasing popularity of this activity, I would suggest we break Snow Tubing back out into its own article. There is an effort underway to categorize snow tubing areas in the United States - so far, NY, MA, VT, and NH have categories on here for that. Jrclark (talk) 13:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)