Houston Bear Tubing 2024

Bear tubing is an on-of-a-kind event for gay bears and admirers. For those of you not familiar with "bears", according to Wikipedia, bear is a man who is fat, hairy, or both in the gay culture. I had a pleasure to participate and help planning with the Houston Bears (HoustonBears.org).

Hacienda del Rio was the Bear Tubing host hotel

The venue was held in the city of New Braunfels, which is about 30 minutes northeast of San Antonio. To start off the 4-day event, Houston Bears hosted a Welcome Party at Our Lady Bar & Patio on Thursday. It was such a treat to the entertainment of the evening provided by DJ Easton from Houston. I had a wonderful time meeting the locals and those who were visiting to participate at this Bear Tubing event, including Ben Zook from Los Angeles CA. (Here is my experience at Our Lady Bar & Patio. Watch the Welcome Speech on YouTube.)

Friday was a relaxing day to get acquainted with the guests from everywhere. At the host hotel Hacienda del Rio, I met people from College Station, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Beaumont and of course, Houston. The host committee provided coffee in the morning and registrations throughout the day as guests arriving. After the family dinner, DJ Easton kicked off the pool party few hours before the evening show Dirty Show with Skyler Gentry by Ben Zook. 

Dirty Show with Skyler Gentry during the Bear Tubing event

My friend and I had lunch at a nearby BBQ join just down the street on Loop 337 and found few familiar shops such as Walmart and Buc-ee's along the way. 

Family-style BBQ dinner served

Saturday was the tubing day. The buses from Corner Tubes transported us from the hotel right before noon. They took us to their shop to pick up the tubes. Then, they told us to walk across the street  to Prince Solms Park. That's the beginning of the 2-hour floating down Comal River. (If you are interested reading more about my excursion, here are my tubing experience, the tubes and the park.)

A glimpse of the Bear Tubing 2024

We came back from tubing at around 3 pm. A BBQ dinner was served around 6 pm. Right before sunset, Ben returned to the pool to host the Mr. Bear Tubing Contest at 8 pm. The evening closed with a pool party until midnight.

Ben Zook hosted the Mr. Bear Tubing Contest 2024

The fun weekend ended Sunday morning as everyone checked out of the hotel. I would definitely come back and hoping to bring more friends to the Bear Tubing next year. Just not sure if I would return to Hacienda del Rio, here is why. 

Follow Bear Tubing and Houston Bears on Facebook for upcoming events.