Take Advantage of Summer Tourism With an Inner Tube Business

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Rainbow Bob's pickup can haul a goodly load of low-cost
Rainbow Bob's pickup can haul a goodly load of low-cost "boats," purchased from area truck stops, tire dealers, farm co-ops and service stations. The "Superstar" rope seat boosts the Bowlings' profits. 
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A "super tube" — fitted with a rope seat — will often bring in as much as $40!

When my husband Bob and I finally made our move to a country home deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we were immediately faced with the need to find a way of supplementing our suddenly reduced — as a result of our relocation — income. Part-time work was scarce (in fact, employment of any nature was pretty danged hard to come by). From what we could see, the area’s biggest industry was tourism since the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers lured in great crowds of sweltering city dwellers on sunny summer weekends.

Those wide, mostly shallow rivers can sure look appealing on a hot afternoon, too. However, (as we’d discovered to our own disappointment), the few waterside businesses that offered rental canoes and/or kayaks charged pretty hefty prices and a lot of would-be river rats were left stranded on the banks for lack of cash. Well, where there’s an unfulfilled urge, there’s usually a way to turn a profit. Perhaps, Bob and I decided, we could bring in weekend money by selling inner-tube rafts to the shore-bound sailors!

Investigating Business Potential

We promptly scrounged half a dozen used floaters from a local gas station, patched and inflated the tubes and invited a few friends to join us on a “reconnoiter day” by enjoying trips down several sections of both the Potomac and the Shenandoah. While doing so (and having one heck of a good time), we noted the best places to park when putting in for a downstream ride, the water levels at which each section of the river could be best enjoyed, the locations of dangerous deep spots, underwater hazards, and rapids that should be avoided, the approximate time required to drift each different tubing “trail” and the best techniques for coming through the faster (but still safe) sections without bumping our bottoms (well, at least not too often). Our toes were shriveled by the end of the day, but we were confident that we could both sell our “poor people’s rafts” and give the purchasers the information they’d need in order to have safe and pleasant excursions.

Getting Down to Business: Decoding Local Laws

  • Published on Jan 1, 1982
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