THE MOST DANGEROUS 8 SECONDS IN SPORTS
September 9th, 2009 Posted in General Domain NewsHi Gang,
I’m going to step aside from domaining tips for a moment to correct what I think will be a hoodwink by Godaddy in their PR sponsorships set to “spend that sucker customer cash”. The new sponsorship claim by Godaddy affects me personally in the sport I’ve been actively involved in for decades. Check out the story and all the links for some mind-blowing pics and videos.
Here’s the issue: It looks like Bobby “Hustler” Parsons is spending the grand profits from his brilliant marketing of GoDaddy.com on sponsoring “bull riding”. However, he mistakenly bought into the Pro Bull Riders (PBR) association’s labeling of bull riding as the “Most Dangerous 8 Seconds in Sports”.
It could be something that comes down to perception and opinion, but after all the facts, photos, and videos are reviewed, bull riding is NOT the most dangerous 8 seconds of sports.
First Clue: Most bullriders don’t go 8 seconds riding the bull, and either way, they have the Second Clue…
Second Clue: Bull riders have a lot of clowns on their side helping them escape the danger. Sometimes they don’t, and they get hurt bad, but the absolute danger of dying isn’t there unless something freakish happens.
Third Clue: Their danger zone is no more than 15 – 30 seconds.
Please let me be clear, bullriding is dangerous. Bull riders get injured fairly regularly at rodeos all across the world. An estimated 50% of rodeo injuries are attributed to bull riding. An American tradition, bull riding and rodeos have been loved and followed for over 125 years. Bull riders are tough, and a fairly respectable group of real men in the American West tradition. This article is not meant to diminish them or their sport. They are true sports heroes in every sense.
However, the “Most Dangerous 8 Seconds In Sports” is big wave surfing. Period. No clowns, no jumping over safety railings, and little or no help when you wipeout. It doesn’t even have to be a “big wave”. It can be an eight foot wave at Pipeline, considered one of the most perfect but dangerous surf breaks in the world. It can be a wave breaking off the Central California coast at Mavericks… Great surfers died at these locations, (the most recent being Malik and Mark Foo, respectively) and many more all over the world have died surfing waves that sometimes aren’t huge.
Imagine attempting to free fall into a continuous vertical drop powered by the most intimidating natural force in the world, the ocean. You’re like a stone skipping across a lake. Let’s say it’s only a common 10 foot wave at any decent surf spot in the world. You think you have yourself in control, but then your board goes one way and you go another. As you hit the surface, tons of water crashes down on your head, pushing your body deep into foamy water, slamming you like a rag doll into rocks or a reef, while you struggle for air. Yeah, jumping on the back of a bull at this point sounds like a drunken party game.
Surfers are regularly injured and some of the best surfers get dead trying to tackle bigger and more dangerous waves. With almost every big wave surfing attempt, surfers come so close to death each time they experience a wipeout that they seriously think about whether they will ever do it again.
By comparison, most every potential danger in bullriding has been seen or experienced, and there is no “new frontier” to sweat through other than what is already known. With surfing, there are a hundred different ways to get injured or die, and new surfing frontiers are waiting to be discovered. From Great White Sharks, poisonous snakes and fish, jagged coral, and testing your ability to hold your breath while being pummeled by tons of liquid nature, surfers, by far, deal with the most danger in 8 seconds in sports.
I hate to give Bobby Parsons any “hints” on how to sell his GoDaddy brand by using the much more exciting and beautiful sport of surfing, but seeing him get “gored” by the PBR’s outstanding tagline that labels bull riding as the “most dangerous 8 seconds” is going to reverberate as a “gremmie” amateur mistake in the water sports world, which has 1000 times the participants and audience than rodeo events.
The photo on the cover of Surfer Magazine of Laird Hamilton seriously makes you gulp. I was lucky enough to surf with Laird in his short time at Salt Creek in the late 70′s when he was just in his teens.
As far as selling bull riding as the “most dangerous 8 seconds”, here is my dare:
Ask any bull rider to get on a surfboard, give them five years of surfing practice and experience, and then dare them to drop in on a 25 foot plus wave. Out of 100 bull riders asked, I guarantee you that none of them will take up that offer, even with five years of prep. I’ll put up $25,000 to see that happen.
However, I would bet that at least TEN big wave riders, with only three months of preparation and training, would jump on the back of a racked and ranked bull with clowns dancing all around. I’ll put up only $2,000 on this dare, because I know hundreds of surfers will sign up to do this.
Ask yourself after viewing surf videos of big waves and bull riding, which one YOU would rather do to make $100,000. There’s your easy answer. So much for bull riding being the “most dangerous 8 seconds in sports” claim.
GoDaddy is the largest and most profitable domain registrar and website services company in the world. They’ve just been suckered into promoting a “tall tale”. And we all know that GoDaddy is built on its impeccable reputation, let’s see how they get out of this one. I’m going to say they “wiped out”. I see surfers all over the world getting ready to blast GoDaddy on this one…
The PBRnow.com website even has a banner ad from the U.S. Airforce that seems to “taunt” rodeo riders to get onto a real 8 second danger…
6 Responses to “THE MOST DANGEROUS 8 SECONDS IN SPORTS”
By Helder on Sep 9, 2009
You’re right, i welcome anyone to get on a surfboard, and it doesn’t have to be with giant waves, it’s really intense, and yes it’s dangerous, and no one can help if things get rough.
By jp on Sep 9, 2009
All I have to say is
Do us all a favor though and make sure your next post is titled “Surfing sucks, don’t try it”
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Joe, you crack me up, you local buzzard! “Oh please, don’t encourage anyone else to surf! I need my drop-in spot empty when I paddle out to it.” heh heh…
I remembered when I surfed the Point at Salt Creek, there was this slightly dangerous spot for the medium swell bowls that first hit after I saw them rolling in across the Strand from a south swell across the Strand a half mile south from the Point. I knew when the first swell would hit, most surfers would paddle out further to nab the best position for the “OUTSIDE” breaks, but it was always the first two or three swells that broke inside as sweet six foot tubes… hitting the sandbars and rocks perfectly. I got those, while the rest of the group would slush their way across Salt Creek Point to Middles on long huge waves that just mushed over from the top, but where it would wall up and close out before it got to Gravels. Each break has its size limit, right?
By jeff schneider on Sep 9, 2009
Hello Steve,
I totally agree with you,and not just because I dislike phony big daddy Parsons. I agree with you on surfing being a much more dangerous sport. This is coming from a guy that body surfed the dirty old wedge, and his daughter Monica who recently almost bought the farm surfing the Bukit in Bali on amazing waves at Padang-Padang. She smashed her face on a reef at Padang-Padang Bali and luckily came out of it with a black eye and a few stitches. I worry a little about her surfing but we all need a challenge in our lives to be really alive. But then again life can be pretty rough on us anyways because knowone ever gets out of it alive.
Keep up the good work my site is getting lots of traffic. Thank You !
Gratefully, Jeff
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Jeff,
Wow… your daughter is brave! And took some war scars to earn her “beach cred”. That rocks. Tell her I said so! You should submit some pics of her bodysurfing — I’ll promote them for you on my site at fb.
I bodysurfed the Wedge before I started surfing, and I’ve seen it at 25 feet… which is scary because it peaks even higher when the swell first bounces off the jetty and then hits ANOTHER swell to form that huge Matterhorn peak that jerks and bucks any rider into the air, and then pounds them into 2 feet of water to crush them against the sand. As you can see, just when you think you’ve completed the drop, a nice bottom turn and you’re setting up for the tube, BANG! Backwash Percolater! More people have been injured and killed at this one spot than all the bull riding matches ever held. And we’re only talking about ONE SPOT for surfing big waves. GoDaddy really blew it on this one…
Perfect examples at this youtube link.
Glad your site is doing well! Cheers
By Teahupoo Hall on Sep 10, 2009
Read this one with a HUGE grin on my face.
You are so right on with that one. I grew up surfing and my son followed suit. I have seen him paddle out in Tropical Storm surf where no one else, including myself, could even get past the break.
Mark Foo was from Pensacola, right down the road from me and also where I grew up.
Laird describes big wave surfing as riding down a mountain and then having the mountain fall on you, that’s appropriate.
My nickname, Teahupoo, is from the heaviest wave on the planet in Tahiti. It simply means “end of the road”.
There is no comparison between the two sports. One must be in INFINITELY better condition to be a big wave surfer and must also have a supernatural control of basic human fears, such as the fear of being eating.
Personally, I don’t ride anything that weighs more than about 135 lbs. LOL
Teahupoo
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Greg,
Heh heh… I know I’ve seen your blog comments and forum posts… everytime I saw your name, I envisioned the bowl sucking up and pitching enough water to fill 2000 swimming pools. I was expecting you to comment here! How did you get such a rad nick name?
Do you have to tell people how to say the name “Teahupoo”? (“cho-poo”)
Thanks for backing me up on this one, bra…
There really is no contest when you want to define the “most dangerous 8 seconds in sports”. Big wave surfing is a mind bender!
mahalo
By Jordyn Robinson on Oct 15, 2009
I’d like to see how many out of the hundreds of surfers that would ride a bull, would actually stay on for the required 8 seconds?
And really… clowns dancing everywhere? Are you kidding? Incredibly misinformed, or trying to make bull riding look like some kind of a whacko circus?
Maybe your the clown.
There are two BULL FIGHTERS and they have to be precise and fearless when they jump in front of 2000 pounds to save our asses. Give me a break.
Your almost as bad as the animal activists.
And like you said, I’m not ragging on your sport (see how I never mentioned surfing) every sport is a test within yourself, a challenge, bull riding and surfing are alike in the fact that you are alone against a force of nature, and it is a thing very few people can claim.
I challenge you to ride a bull, and stay on. Because well, I’m fairly certain you never have, and I’ll come ride your big scary wave, Dude.
Now unless you get informed.
Shut up.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Well, other than you told me to “shut up”, I’ll try to respond. I said “bull riding” was tough. That’s clear in my article. But riding a bull and riding a 30 foot wave? Bro, I’ll get on your bull, may not make it for 2 seconds, but there WILL be a rodeo clown or two, brave men for sure, right there to save me.
However, hotshot, let me inform you this: When you fall off your board dropping in on the wave after 2 seconds, and hundreds of TONS of water are smashing you under, sucking the air out of you and bashing your body against the reef, rocks or ocean floor, I guarantee you’ll want to choose bull riding over surfing big waves ANYDAY. A bull is just good meat to eat… the ocean, well… she kicks your ass beyond Jupiter, my friend.
The article wasn’t meant to belittle bullriding, it was meant to diminish the Public Relations Firm that the PBR association hired to come up with the ludicrous phrase “The Most Dangerous 8 Seconds”. The phrase is a lie for your sport… period.
By Brad Pit on Dec 18, 2009
I really Agree with ur post.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
“Brad”, What I need is for you to have Angelina agree with my post… just for “full” confirmation.