News

This'll Make You Want To Move To Boulder

by Alicia Lu

July 15, 2014

If you live in Boulder, Colorado, then you might've participated in the city's annual Bike to Work Day. Which sounds pretty straightforward — but have you tried the city's other, far-less-conventional annual commuting event? On Tuesday, Boulder is hosting its seventh Tube to Work Day, where commuters get on tubes and float down Boulder Creek to work, in full office attire. It may sound like a completely impractical way to get to work, especially if you have any meetings that morning, but more and more people are participating every year.

As part of Alternate Commute Week, which includes Bike to Work Day, Tube to Work Day is the creation of Jeff Kagan, an environmentalist and musician who performs educational songs for children along with his wife, Paige. Both Bike to Work and Tube to Work are meant to spread awareness of how your daily commute affects the environment and how alternate means of transportation can cut down on fossil fuel emissions, city noise pollution, and media distractions.

The tubing event started unofficially in 2008 with two participants, but by last year, there were almost 30. And this year, there were around 40 people who took to the creek at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. While it's certain that the commuters were able to bypass any red lights, stop signs, and morning rush hour traffic, it's unclear whether branches, rapids, or rocks slowed them down.

Hopefully, nobody had to give a presentation at 9 a.m. And what about the people whose offices are at the other end of the creek? I have so many questions. Either way, the event looks like a blast, thanks to Kagan's adventurous spirit.

In a video documenting the 2013 event, Kagan and the participants chant a poem before taking the plunge:

By wind or by water

By flight or by float

By land or by river

By bike or by boat

Lest on this day

We end up in the murk

Let our epitaphs say

We were tubing to work!

Take a look at what tubing to work actually looks like.