Girls in bikinis, hundreds of tubes and Keystone Light cans everywhere.
This is a description of a typical day of floating during the summer months in Chico.
Floating is a great way to interact with Chico State students, said freshman Michelle Maiello, a graphic design major.
“I loved it,” Maiello said. “Beer Can Beach was the fun part of floating.”
People have been floating since the 1960s, said John Scott, owner of Scotty’s Landing, a restaurant near Beer Can Beach.
“We just kicked back, relaxed, enjoyed the sun and the company of friends,” he said.
Since then, the various beaches people would stop at have moved around and washed away over the years, Scott said. Back in the day, people would stop at Scotty’s Landing or the Washout.
The name of the beach has also changed in the last 10 years to Beer Can Beach, he said.
However, the tradition of floating has not changed, said Deean Decker, a 1987 Chico State alumna. But, she doesn’t think people respect the river anymore.
“There was definitely drinking going on, but people would look out for each other,” she said. “People also respected the river more. Now people leave everything from boats to tubes.”
Floating has chiefly stayed the same, said Russ Hammer, a 1978 Chico State alumnus. The biggest difference is the number of people who go floating.
“The crowds and the intensity of the partying is the difference,” he said. “We did the same thing, but not on the level of pouring beer over girls.”
Floating was not necessarily a tradition, but just something people did because people had access to a river, Decker said. People would also call it “tubing” instead of floating.
People would get a group of friends together, carry an ice chest and stop at various spots along the river, she said. There also used to be a rope swing.
“Back then floating was a way to meet people,” Decker said. “Now it’s more of an excuse for a bunch of people to get together, get drunk and party.”
Hammer would start floating from Red Bluff and end at the Washout, which was a gravel beach where people would get together and have picnics, he said.
“The idea of floating is to enjoy the casualness of Chico during the summer,” Hammer said. “People misbehaving on Beer Can Beach takes away from that.”
Kylie Munoz can be reached at
kmunoz@theorion.com
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