–This article can be found at: http://www.pbrnow.com/release/?id=7453 It’s all about Dusty Ephrom and his travels around the bull riding world written by Keith Ryan Cartwright of the PBR. Congratulations as well to Dusty on finishing 8th overall at the Seattle Event picking up just over $2600. Ty Pozzobon finished in the 20th spot taking home $400 for his efforts.
On another note as well some Canadian bulls made their way down to Seattle this weekend too. Justin Volz and Ty Streeter (Wild Hoggs Bucking Bulls) had two bulls out the first night. Freckles threw off Aaron Roy in the first round and Caleb Sanderson in the 3rd while Hillbilly Deluxe was covered by Ryan McConnel to the tune of 84.5 points.
Robinson/Eno/Kubinchak’s superstar Unabomber took LJ Jenkins to the pay window and to win the event with 90.75 points in the Championship Round. Kicking Stones threw of 2006 PBR World Champion Guillherme Marchi in the first round too.
Here’s the story on Dusty:
SEATTLE (April 30, 2011) – Dusty Ephrom rides bulls for a living.
He works 8 seconds at a time, but in the past month, he and his wife Renee have driven more than 8,000 miles in their two-year-old minivan.
Born in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, Ephrom makes his home in Arcola, Saskatchewan – just over five hours north of the U.S. border – and in the past four weeks they’ve drive down to Tampa, Fla., and back home; out to Las Vegas and back; and then, last weekend, they drove down to Stephenville, Texas, and back up to Arcola before heading west to Seattle.
“We actually have a dog that travels with us,” said Ephrom with a laugh, “and he barks at everybody but the border guy. He knows him.”
They won’t be going home this week. Instead, they’re planning on driving 2,356 miles to Wharton, Texas, for a Touring Pro event Wednesday night. Then they’ll spend Thursday driving another 994 miles north to Des Moines, Iowa, for next weekend’s Built Ford Tough Series event.
Ephrom changed the oil on the minvan three weeks ago, and will do so again on his way down to Texas. He handles all the engine repairs whether something needs to be replaced on the side of highway, at a truck stop or in a hotel parking lot.
“I talk to truck drivers at the truck stops and they can’t believe the hours that I put in,” said Ephrom, who recently eclipsed 500,000 kilometers (more than 300,000 miles) since buying his minivan two years ago.
As an alternate on the BFTS, he has no real idea where he’ll be competing from one week to the next, so it’s easier to drive than to purchase overpriced airline tickets at the last minute, especially for flights originating out of Canada.
Driving affords him the opportunity to spend more time with his wife, who has kept him company for most of his trips.
It’s been quite an adventure for a man who never intended to be a professional bull rider.
Ephrom grew up ranching, and never thought of bull riders as cowboys. He planned to pursue a career as an open-wheel race car driver after graduating from high school.
His original plan was to attend a six-month mechanics course that would have led to a training program in Toronto to work on a pit crew for F 1000 cars for a year.
The F 1000 series is a tier down from Formula One, and according to Ephrom, after a year of that he would have qualified to train as a driver.
That all changed after he discovered the original course was expanded from six months to four years. The discovery came on a day when he drove off with his dad’s horse trailer, loaded up some bulls that a friend’s father owned, and tried bull riding for the first time.
“The first time I made an 8-second ride, I threw my hat in the air,” recalled Ephrom, who was 19 when he climbed into the chute for the first time. “It was just a runner, but I was hooked right there.”
In an instant, Ephrom and his friend Justin Siemens discarded the idea of racing cars and focused on bull riding. Before long, the two decided to attend a bull riding school in Colorado.
From there he and Siemens headed to Arizona, where Ephrom has family, and started riding three or four times a week on practice bulls and at local open bull riding events.
“I’ve always wanted to do something that took extreme focus,” said Ephrom, “and they’re both kind of similar in that way, but that’s about as similar as racing and bull riding gets.”
The 30-year-old Ephrom made his BFTS debut in 2006, and in the past three seasons has ridden in 26 BFTS events and countless Touring Pro events.
He understands he didn’t come into the sport the same way as others – he was 20 before he entered his first competition and was the top Canadian rookie on the rodeo circuit in 2004 – but he’s still “extremely focused” on one day winning a PBR world title.
“It’s under my skin now,” he said. “I love it.”
—by Keith Ryan Cartwright
Comments
Hail to Saskatchewan! where good cowboys are born ‘n bred and oft remembered when they’re dead.
Greatly enjoyed!
Dale Lewis
DustyRoads web&print