Sunday, September 9, 2012

Chihuhua, Mexico PBR

We recently attended a P.B.R. event in Chihuahua, Mexico and were actually quite surprised and pleased with how well it was ran and the overall quality of the show, production and so on. First off, we made contact with one of the guys that worked for P.B.R. Mexico and he got us lined up with the trip, came through with everything they said they would, and took really good care of us. The P.B.R. sent down mark ward to assist with the production and questions and issues and also had former P.B.R. Finals qualifier Nate Thorston there to judge as well. They also did a great job of putting together a talent filled roster from Brazil, America, Mexico, Canada, and Australia. They condensed the format to 25 guys, who all got on two bulls with a 6 man short round after night two. The show ran fairly quickly and smoothly and had no major hiccups or delays, overall, i think they did a really good job.
 
The bulls were pretty decent in my opinion. I've seen a lot ranker pens, especially at good quality P.B.R's, but I've also seen a lot worse pens, here in America. I know they don't have the bull pool to choose from that we do in America so for what I seen as far as bulls, compared to events here in America, I think it was nothing to bark about. I actually thought they would ride a lot more bulls and they didn't. I think one guy got in to the short round on one head, which means, if you would have stayed on both your bulls, you would have made the short round, so nobody should be complaining.
 
Overall, I tip my hat to PBR Mexico and the PBR in general for sending their own U.S. representatives in and effort to assist and make the PBR competition in other countries as good as possible while including international competitors and increasingly better bucking bulls, formats, competition and the whole show in general. I would definitely be willing to go back. Keep your eye on PBR Mexico and their events as I expect them to continue to develop and increase in quality even more.
 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Boise PBR BFTS Event Recap

PBR BFTS Boise recap..........In what I thought was one of the more solid shows of riding I have seen a little while,Luke Snyder took home top honors after two 90 + trips and a great ride in the short round on an old adversary in Charlie Bullware, with Mike Lee and L.J. rounding out the top 3. Harve Stewart and and Ryan Dirteater finished 4th and 5th respectively to make for an all American top 5 ...which I dont remember happening for quite a while.(Go U.S.A. !!)The top 15/15 battle was awesome with 6 total scores and 4 for over 90 with Stormy Wing and Renato Nunes splitting top honors. Marchi got drilled after riding his first bull and was out after that with concussion like symptons. J.B. continued to amaze sticking it on Bad Blake in the top 15/15 battle. I'm not on a J.B. wagon, I'm not on anybodys wagon, but you cant help but respect the intestinal fortitude and desire to win from this guy. In a time when bull riding is as monetarily rewarding and physically demanding as it has ever been at it's highest level, he may or may not be making the best decision but right, wrong or in between, you cant help, or at least I cant, cheering for the guy who lets it hang every time, goes for first or nothing, takes rerides and wants to win at all cost and will do anything to do so.....and is now doing so with the other hand at the highest level of bull riding....craziness!! That being said, he is about beat to death and is out of Pueblo this weekend. Proctor got cut, after using his last med exempt, but I'm willing to bet, he''ll be back by the time the break is over. Five guys are within 1,800 points of the number 1 spot in the world and L.J. and Silvano could take over the lead if they killed it this weekend. Pueblo's next, then the summer break until Tulsa August 10th.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Is the future of Bull Riding at risk ????

Is the Future of Bull Riding at Risk?... You dang right it is....

The true definition of a Jr Bull is one proportionate in size, strength and bucking style to advance Jr riders in their quest to become bull riders when they mature. Unfortunately in most cases this rule has been thrown out the window by the people who are bucking their young bulls as well as the parents of the young riders. Bull power is the strongest in the history of the sport and isn't likely to be going the other direction. Boys and young men need the very best chance to develop their natural talent and ability without having to get on bulls that are out of their league.

So many Jr associations will just hire a bull man to bring Jr bulls for the kids and they bring their futurity prospects or even proven full grown bulls to the Jr rodeo. In a lot of cases the kids just get on and get slammed to the ground and don't enter next time. Real bull riders dying off because of this kind of thing taking place at the foundation and structure level. this didn't happen to my era of riders because there weren't breeding programs only guys going to the sale barn and trying bulls. Not a lot of hot bred bulls out there.

Any of us in leadership of the Jr associations must make a stand and against this BS taking place and let these youngsters develop into bull riders rather than expecting them to try to ride real bulls when they should be able to be kids and have fun. Getting your ass slammed all the time isn't any fun and turns a bunch of talented kids into head cases. They finally settle for being halfhearted most of the time and mediocre is acceptable because they wont put out 100%. They don't even know what 100% really is because they don't know success, only failure and 35% riding average is something they are proud of.

It's got to stop or bull riding will be a distant memory to all of us. Take a stand with me against this wherever you have influence let it help.

Thanks for listening.
Cody Custer

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Stop Complaining


“STOP COMPLAINING”
  If you’re a bull riding fan and follower, unless you were sleeping under a rock this weekend you probably know that Silvano Alves won the PBR Last Cowboy Standing event in Detroit on Saturday. It paid him $162,733 for riding three bulls. That's $54,244.33 per bull or $6,780.54 per second, by the hour, not too bad. He did that in front of a stadium packed with 25,476 fans.
      In a time when all I seem to hear people do is want to tear something down and talk about all the things that aren't good about something, and what they don't like about it, how about talking about some of the good things. It seems that people want to talk about how the PBR has spoiled athletes, showoffs, weak hearts, the scheduling and TV coverage sucks, it's all about the sponsors, why are all the Brazilians’ winning all the time, blah, blah, blah, the list goes on and on. Now this isn't just about the PBR, I don't work for them, or anybody else, it's about bull riding, it's just that the PBR is the biggest fish in this pond, in my opinion, so they catch the most flack over it, I've heard just as many complaints about the other bull ridings and associations for various other reasons. Now there is definitely some things I don't like, some of the formats I'm not a fan of, I don't like the Iron Cowboy, I don't like that they let a guy qualify for the World Finals based on his finals money alone that he won in a different country that carries him the entire year.
    BUT, there are some things that I do like that is pretty hard to argue. This weekend, Silvano Alves rode against several of the best guys in the world, on some of the best bulls in the world, in one of the biggest stadiums in front of  a massive crowd and took home a payday that many of the top guys won't even see in a full years worth of riding. That's pretty awesome in my book. And he did that fair and square, black and white, no bs format, eight seconds at a time, when nobody else could. I think that a lot of people forget that the "commercialization" of this sport that some people despise so much is what makes it possible for a guy to do all those things. Wouldn't it be great if we could keep everything "old school" and the traditional way, so to speak, and a guy could go win $162,733 at one bull riding that isn't even a finals.....sure it would....but that's not business and that's not reality, and love it or hate it, the business of Professional Bull Riding has made it grow to what it is today.
      Now this opens up a can of worms that could go on and on and we could write a book over the arguments and discussions that could follow. I guess in trying to make a long story less long I would want to get to my points. As a fan, give them a break. Do you think they want to lose fans, make people upset, and make people not want to watch their events? Of course not, they're a business and they survive on fans as well as sponsors and you definitely can't make everybody happy all the time and there are quite a few followers out there with different opinions of what they like or don't like. Also, in a successful business comes growth, with growth comes change and with change comes a trial and error process at times with what will work and what will not. So if you’re a fan and you like it, awesome, tell a friend, if you don't like it, give them some feedback, it's the least you can do, and if it's so bad that you can't stand it, then don't watch it, nobody is making you.
       As far as riders go, don't even start. I hear so many guys complain about what is so wrong about various associations and which ones are legit and which one's aren’t for whatever reason and why guys with a name get gifted and new guys get hosed. How do you think guys with a name got a name? Do you think that 10 years ago the PBR was just looking down a list of random young bull riders that weren't even old enough to even ride at their events and picked out, J.B. Mauney and said, "when this kid starts coming to PBR events, we are going to get him on all the right bulls, make sure he gets the whistle and load him every time until we make him a superstar”? Pretty stupid statement, huh? But do you get my point. I've heard the same thing for several other guys in all of the other major associations and my opinion remains the same. Maybe they do get some Gold Buckle points here and there, but that tends to happen when you have done so good for so long that people come to subconsciously expect success every time they see you. Buy a permit, ride your bulls, buy a card, ride your bulls, move up the ranks, ride your bulls and you too can ride for and win $162,733 on three bulls. Stop finding reasons why you can’t win and start finding explanations of why you do. Most people probably won’t give the time to read this whole rant, theory, whatever you want to call it or others just won't care, but for those who do, please share your opinions, I love hearing other perspectives.
     In closing, congrats to the PBR for putting on a RIDING CONTEST that paid the right guy a whole pile of money and congrats to Silvano Alves for being the only guy who earned it. (even if you are from Brazil and I like cheering for the home team)


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Facebook Blog

We have added the the Blogspot app to our Facebook page but it seems there is currently a bug that bis not displaying the blog feed. They simply say, hopefully it will be addressed soon, until then, I guess the blog is only available here.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Welcome to the Where They Buck Blogspot

We aren't really sure of how this works yet, so give us a minute or two and we will be blasting our one sided opinions out for all the world to hear.