Blogging has been a bit light lately due mainly to a lot of stuff going on at work. This is also budget season for Andrea so she’s off working 12 hour days and weekends, so it is hard to find time to write.

We did manage to get out one night a couple of Saturdays ago to an event I never thought I’d attend. In the classic style of Monster Truck and Motocross events, Andrea had been seeing ads for the PBR: Professional Bull Riding. This is one of the fastest growing professional sports out there, and since they were coming to nearby Winston-Salem, we decided to go.

It definitely a different crowd than we are used to seeing. As we pulled up to the coliseum, Andrea remarked that she wasn’t dressed slutily enough, and there was lots of big hair and cowboy boots. It’s also unusual to see sponsors like Copenhagen smokeless tobacco at any of the events we attend.

We had seats a couple of rows back from the arena, but since we ordered late we were on the opposite site from the gates where the bulls are released. The view was still pretty good, and I guess we were also protected from having dirt thrown on us. The event started out like a rock concert. The house lights dimmed, the spotlights roamed, the music got loud and the letters P-B-R were spelled out in fire on the arena floor (apologies for the picture quality from my phone).

There were two enormous bull’s heads hanging on the gates with eyes that would glow red, nostrils that belched smoke and of course they were also fire breathing.

This was followed by introductions of the riders, the judges, the “bull fighters” (not “rodeo clowns”) and the Master of Ceremonies. The MC did wear clown makeup and pretty much goofed around between rides. They also introduced a couple of the “bovine athletes,” i.e the bulls.

Most people are aware that the idea behind bull riding is to, well, stay on the bull. The time limit is 8 seconds. What most people aren’t aware of is the scoring system. There are 100 possible points per ride: 50 for the rider and 50 for the bull. Scores over 90 are uncommon (we saw three). If the bull doesn’t effectively try to kill the rider, the ride will be “red flagged” which results in the opportunity to ride another bull in an attempt to get a higher score.

When I watch this stuff on TV I tend to root for the bull, but I found myself pulling for the rider more often than not. If a rider got 4-5 seconds into a really good ride you wanted him to stay on for the full 8 seconds so that you might see a high score. One rider crushed his hand coming out of the gate, and toward the end of the show another rider was pretty badly trodden on and had to be removed on a backboard, but most of the riders had safe rides.

On a “Where Are They Now?” note the halftime entertainment was provided by Jewel. After losing her recording contract with Atlantic Records it seems she’s angling to make a country album. I really don’t like Jewel and she didn’t fail to disappoint me here, either.

It was fun and we’ll probably go again if they come back next year. On the way home Andrea saw her first pickup sporting “truck balls” so it was a culturally educational experience as well.

[Update: Here’s a 16 MB Quicktime movie of the worst accident of the evening.]