Life to the Max Podcast
"Suburban Bull Rider" Ft Ethan
After contacting a technician to service our fridge, we met Ethan! Ethan fixed our refrigerator, and we had to invite him on the show! Listen to Ethan discuss how he unexpectedly found himself diving into a new hobby of riding bulls! Ethan accepts opportunities that are handed to him, whether its new jobs fixing luxury appliances, new adrenaline filled hobbies such as riding bulls, or living "Life to the Max" by sitting with us and sharing his story!
Join us as Ethan takes us through the highs and lows of his diverse experiences, emphasizing the importance of seizing every opportunity that comes our way. "Life to the Max" is all about celebrating the unique journeys that make us who we are, and Ethan's tale is a compelling reminder that trying new things can lead to unexpected and exciting adventures.
Tune in for a conversation that will inspire you to step outside your comfort zone, take risks, and truly live life to the max.
After contacting a technician to service our fridge, we met Ethan! Ethan fixed our refrigerator, and we had to invite him on the show! Listen to Ethan discuss how he unexpectedly found himself diving into a new hobby of riding bulls! Ethan accepts opportunities that are handed to him, whether its new jobs fixing luxury appliances, new adrenaline filled hobbies such as riding bulls, or living "Life to the Max" by sitting with us and sharing his story!
Join us as Ethan takes us through the highs and lows of his diverse experiences, emphasizing the importance of seizing every opportunity that comes our way. "Life to the Max" is all about celebrating the unique journeys that make us who we are, and Ethan's tale is a compelling reminder that trying new things can lead to unexpected and exciting adventures.
Tune in for a conversation that will inspire you to step outside your comfort zone, take risks, and truly live life to the max.
Normandy was sick. I watched the documentary on D-Day two or three weeks ago Band of Brothers. You know I haven't seen Band of Brothers. I watch a lot of stuff on YouTube.
Speaker 2:I was in the unit for Band of Brothers, really, yeah, so we had to take those shit. You know what I mean. We made sure everything is perfect. Yeah, that's just how it's gotta be. You got it Like they said. You have to look after the beat. You have to set the example, just like the art, just like the people who founded 2506 Waker. You know what I mean? The Easy Company.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2:So if you watch Band of Brothers, you'll see Easy Company. I was part of Dog Company and it's basically they were the first people to jump as a perpetrator on the beaches of Normandy Really, yeah, and it was dark, it was like it was fucking storming out and stuff. And they have people that survived in, like you know, in 2000s. They have people talk about the event like the Battle of the Bullish. You know all that stuff. It's all my unit, which was awesome.
Speaker 1:Wow, what's today's podcast?
Speaker 2:going.
Speaker 1:Let's get it, let's get it.
Speaker 3:You know Max has been waiting a long time to meet somebody that's as enthusiastic over history as he is.
Speaker 1:I love history. I'm a huge history boy, me too.
Speaker 3:And earlier today Natalia was talking mad shit. Well, well, well, max was giving history lessons and she said I don't care, nobody will care.
Speaker 2:Do you know what yesterday was?
Speaker 1:No, I don't.
Speaker 2:Yesterday was Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1:December 7th.
Speaker 2:And I told Natalia and she was like I, I, max, I don't give a shit, I don't give a shit, I'm going to be honest with you. I was going to mix up to 43 or 41, but it was 41. For sure?
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow. Well, you know, our fridge went out not too long ago and we had to call for help. We had to get it serviced and Ethan was the man to come through and fix the fridge and fix the ice maker, and he's seeing the equipment. He said what you guys got going on here? I said we, we interview anyone and everyone, we share stories, we tell them to Max, we live life to the max and we got Ethan.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me, guys.
Speaker 3:A bull rider slash HVAC Would you call it HVAC refrigeration repair. Yeah, pretty much the main reason why we drag on the shows. Because he said he rides bulls and we're going to get right into this interview. I'm I'm stirring my words. I got like five hours of sleep right after Max's intro.
Speaker 2:Happy Friday, everybody. You know happy holidays, paralyzed from a neck down, breathing through a machine, but that does stop me from following my dreams and doing what I love to do. I don't got any excuse, and neither should you. It's good to Keith.
Speaker 3:Ethan Bro.
Speaker 2:Ethan Ethan.
Speaker 3:So your name's Greg, right yeah?
Speaker 2:Jason.
Speaker 1:Ethan, ethan, I get it all.
Speaker 3:Ethan the bull rider.
Speaker 1:Well thanks for having me guys. I'm super excited. I could not believe I got invited on. I appreciate it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's weird how we come in, how people come into other people's lives. I mean, we call Eric, calls about my fridge and says, hey, you need to get it fixed. We get it and we meet Ethan. We meet Ethan.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he works for what's what the hell is the first called Called?
Speaker 1:sub zero.
Speaker 2:Sub zero, it's my favorite.
Speaker 3:It just goes to show that on this show we don't discriminate. We get all types of people from all angles of life, and we show people many different perspectives on this crazy thing called life that we're all trying to figure out, and it gets complicated.
Speaker 1:We're all on this roller coaster. Life is up and down. It's more of an accident than anything.
Speaker 3:It's more of an accident. That's what I figured you think. It's an accident that we met Max.
Speaker 2:I think it was fate.
Speaker 3:It was fate, it was an accident. You're sweet, you're a sweetheart.
Speaker 2:The fuck up. So, ethan, tell us about your upbringing. I mean because you're like the first person we've ever shown as a bull rider and you know, like straight country yeah.
Speaker 3:How do you get introduced to that hobby?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like your upbringing and like your family and just everything.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll get into it. I'm not. I'm not a career bull rider. I'm not a rodeo cowboy. I've done it a few times. I ride horses. I roped calves every now and then. I grew up in Palatine, illinois, about 35, 40 minutes east of here. I've got two younger brothers Just awesome, super tight with them. Two great parents Grew up in Palatine. I actually got thrown out of high school when I was a junior for making a bomb. No, I wasn't making a bomb, no that's a reference to the previous episode.
Speaker 1:It was some other stuff I don't care to share on the internet, you know, in front of people.
Speaker 3:I got sent into it.
Speaker 1:I got sent to an alternative school. I went from a school that had, I want to say, 45, 4500, 5000 people on it. I got sent to a school there's quite a few people. I think my graduating class had a 1200,000 people on it, so an alternative school. I got sent to an alternative school and that's like for, basically like a behavior school. Just bad kids yeah really 5000.
Speaker 3:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, that was the high school I went to. My old turn had 15 kids in it. I was the only white kid in there. Like you said, we don't discriminate.
Speaker 3:They didn't really like me.
Speaker 1:I would wear overalls to school and you know it was not good. If I were the wrong set of colors I'd have to put on a school, you know, school shirt, because different gangs and stuff like that in the area. But yeah, I figured. You know what I'm in. This all turned. Now I kind of got to turn it around and figure it out. So I did a bunch of online classes got out in December of 15. I graduated early and immediately started working as a mechanic and that's kind of the story that leads up to me sitting in your kitchen.
Speaker 1:I was working as a mechanic at a shop in Peloton. I did that for about three years and I got sick of it. The company I worked for originally they had their fleet vehicle serviced over at the shop that I was working at and I would see these guys, you know, once, twice, three times a month, depending on how much driving they would do. And I befriended a tech named Dave. Dave and me we're not in touch anymore. He moved somewhere south. We talk every now and then, but I was having a horrible day. I was covered in grease and oil, you know coolant, translucent, whatever, dripping all over me. It was a winter time. So we were getting all the salt. You know the salt wash from the cars when they came in. It's warm in the garage, so all the stuff was dripping down.
Speaker 1:Dave's like hey, ethan, how you doing man? I said Dave, dude, I am having a horrible day. I don't want to keep doing this. You know I'm thinking about going to school for HVAC. I didn't know that appliance repair was a thing. So I said, dave, man, what do you guys do Like? I want to get into HVAC. I want to stop working on cars. He said man, you know, we work on refrigerators, wall ovens and microwave steam ovens, vent hoods, and I think we might be looking to hire a training guy.
Speaker 1:Here's the owner's phone number. Owner's name was Pete, really, really nice guy. So when I got off work I called Pete. I said hey, pete, you know I've been working at the shop for a few years. I've been working on your trucks and I want to get into HVAC. You know I'm interested in doing what you guys are doing. Dave's a good buddy of mine. Now I've known him for about two years. We talk every couple of weeks. And Pete said why don't you come on in for an interview? Come for a ride along, see if it's something you're interested in, I show up. I was working six days, five days a week. Thursdays were off and then I was going to night school. I started going to Harper College over in Palatine for HVAC, so I went on a ride with Pete, the owner of the company, and I immediately fell in love with it. We got to see some really, really nice houses on the North Shore working in just mansions. You know more money than we could possibly imagine what to do with, and we're working on these people's refrigerators.
Speaker 3:More money than you could imagine.
Speaker 1:It's like, yeah. So I'm like man, this is really cool, like it's pretty laid back. We get to go to new areas. You know, we ran six calls that day, so I got to go into six different homes and I told Pete. I said, pete, I like this, you know I think I'm interested in coming on being one of your guys' apprentice. So he said, great, once you finish school we'll hire you on full time.
Speaker 1:So school was, I believe, eight months, maybe it was six months, I don't remember exactly. So every Thursday, my off day from the shop, I would go ride with somebody from the old company running house calls, trying to learn the trade. And I graduated trade school, quit my job the next day, gave my two weeks in and then got hired on at the company that I was working for originally and I was with them for five years. I was in training for about two years, training with the senior tech every day and learning some good skills and seeing some nice houses. So I was out on my own. One thing led to another. I ended up breaking my leg and that put me out of work for about 14 months and that's how I ended up coming to your house. I ended up with another company, got called out to work here and that's how I'm here.
Speaker 1:But yeah, the upbringing was good. I mean we didn't do much horseback riding out there, definitely no bull riding. I didn't know any cowboys, so to say, or cowgirls. There was a stable in Palatine called the Palatine Stables, my cousin. He served in the Army. He was stationed up in Alaska out of Fairbanks. He ended up staying there. So Max was gifted horseback riding lessons when we were like 12, 13 years old and it's all English riding, hunter, jumper, English permit, proper riding. So kind of got into it. Then lost touch. The real gear had grown up so we were riding little mini bikes and stuff like that around the neighborhoods buying dirt bikes. Four wheelers got into the snowmobiles and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:When you were talking about how you got your jobs going from, you said washing cars or working on cars.
Speaker 1:I was a mechanic, I was working on cars.
Speaker 3:And then talking to someone and getting that opportunity as an apprentice and then maintaining that good relationship with the previous jobs. You can go on bull riding. The determining factor that I'm hearing is just maintaining good relationships with everyone and those relationships lead to opportunities and hobbies like bull riding and the stables.
Speaker 1:That's what it boils down to, I mean working with Max.
Speaker 3:We just reached out just to say, hey, you know. And then it's all about who you know. You didn't go online and Google. You know what career should I get into? I hate being a mechanic, you know. You vent it to someone and that's certain someone.
Speaker 1:I fell into it. Like I said, it was an accident. It wasn't even like I just fell into the trade and I absolutely love it.
Speaker 3:So any moral to that, to your story, that I could give to the people is be a good fucking person, Be polite, talk to people, be yourself, you know, be nice.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, I agree, but that must take a lot of discipline, like six months hating your life, going to work, sweating your ass off or being cold as shit. You know and you have to. You know, and all you're looking at is the light at the end of the tunnel. You're like, okay, if I finish school and on Thursdays I'm gonna go on these ride-alongs and get better at working on refrigerators and stuff like that, and then I don't know, like the pot boils all the way to the top Sometimes. Does you ever have a moment where you're like, fuck, I can't do this?
Speaker 1:Not really. No, I knew it was gonna suck for a while. I mean going to night school and then riding on my days off and then working. I knew the company that I was gonna go work for it and they didn't work on weekends and I loved having my weekends off. So when I was a mechanic we worked Saturday, sunday. Those were our busy days. We were doing a lot of oil changes, brakes, shocks, all that stuff. You know cool flushes.
Speaker 1:So I've never worked for a dealership. I worked in a quick loop. It was a quick loop but we did other things like not like a jiffy loop, but we would do brakes and struts, engine components. We'd never pull motors, we would never do transits. I mean we would do U-joints on driveshafts and stuff like that. But I think the main difference is probably pay scale. I know that GM is union and they all work off book time. So let's say you know you bring your Chevy Silverado into the dealer under, you know under a dealer warranty or if you're, you know if you're out of warranty and you need a water pump on your motor. I believe, like I said, I haven't worked in a dealership for my buddies that I have. This is what my understanding is If the book, if the GM book, says hey, this job's gonna take you three hours, so that's all you can charge for it, and you do the job in an hour and a half.
Speaker 3:You're still getting charged for three hours.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing. So if you do an hour and a half, that's great. Then you get your book time and then you could go on to another job, make more money. If you run into a problem and break a bolt off or strip ahead and you're on that job for six hours, all you get paid for is a three hours.
Speaker 3:Oh really, I didn't even know it went both ways. You're fam in there, yeah, so if you're good, I did not know it went both ways. If you're good, you're good Whole time. I'm just thinking I'm getting fucked every time I go to a mechanic.
Speaker 1:No, no, if you're good, you're good, If you're bad, you're bad. And then guys like me that were working at the Quick Lube I mean we were just hourly, we had some commission and stuff like that but I believe that's some of the main differences that we were working for a family-owned company. We're not working for a corporate organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I was just wondering, because most people tend to go to the dealership it's like there's an issue with their car rather than a mechanic. I always went to mechanics back then and they would do what they do, charge what they charge, and I always thought I was getting screwed over. So I got another question for you, my friend have you ever screwed over a dumb girl? Who walks in and says, I need my oil changed, and then you say oh, your transmission's busted.
Speaker 1:So I'm a big karma believer. I'm a big karma guy. I've worked with guys that do screw people over. I don't believe in doing that.
Speaker 2:How do?
Speaker 1:they do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, have you seen it? Tell a story of what you've seen, so I don't first hand.
Speaker 1:I don't think I know of anybody that's done that. I've heard stories of people getting screwed over.
Speaker 2:Tell us a story Like what's the most expensive? Let's say that happened.
Speaker 1:So here's one. I just heard this story like two months ago. I've got this friend. She's got this old Chevy Silverado.
Speaker 1:It was wet around the head gaskets and she thought that the heads were leaking the head gaskets on the motor and pulling those heads off that motor is a really big job and it gets expensive. So she brought it to a mechanic, not a dealership. She brought it to a mechanic and the mechanic quoted her like $23, $2,500 to pull the heads off, to do the head gaskets and the valve covers sit right above the head, get right above the heads and to pull the valve covers off on an older truck like that it's a really quick and easy job. You just pull the four bolts, pull the valve covers off, clean up the old gasket, put a new gasket on and you're done Gasket. I mean you get our TV it's like a liquid gasket that we like to use or you get the regular one. If you get a regular gasket it's like $25. With labor, I mean you're looking at $150, $200.
Speaker 1:The mechanic quoted her that $2,300 for the heads and it wasn't even the heads leaking, it was the valve covers leaking down onto the heads. So they were trying to pull a fast one on her and another buddy of mine who works on trailers. He's a trailer hedge installer. He looked at her truck and told her hey, this is. You know what do you mean? You got a $2,500 quote. This is your heads aren't even leaking, it's the valve covers. You know, we could do this in my driveway in half an hour and be done so. That's, that's one story that I saw.
Speaker 2:what's the moral of this story?
Speaker 1:I Just think it's a karma thing. I mean, if he would have done that job on her car, something, something would have happened. He would have screwed up another job. I agree with you.
Speaker 2:You know, it's.
Speaker 1:The moral of the story is just don't, don't get a second quote?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the second I can get, sir, get for that's the moral of the story.
Speaker 3:Second quotes. All the time I'm thinking like what can people do to avoid you know, what can the ignorant car people do to avoid the mechanics? Yeah, really, second quotes is magical. Do it and you could. Honestly, I encourage second quotes on the medical field too. If a doctor tells you you need a surgery, you better get another doctor that's gonna tell you the same shit.
Speaker 1:I agree on that one for sure. It's like I Just had to replace my my furnace in my in my AC condenser at my home last last season. I got five different quotes. The most expensive was 11,500 something like that from a big name, reputable company around here. The cheapest one was like 5,300 bucks. So there was a huge swing there. I ended up going with the middle guy. He seemed the most honest and it made the most sense.
Speaker 3:And you're gonna trust a professional. But you know, again, again it's. It's always good to get second or third quotes, sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always think it whenever I'm working in a home too. I always think the Dateline NBC episodes where they had they had Some woman in Florida I think he's in Florida or Arizona, somewhere like that. She had a water heater out in her garage and the Dateline people set up the cameras, hidden cameras, and they cracked one of the water fittings loose so it was leaking a little bit. Okay, they called like five or six different companies over to see who would be honest and who wouldn't be, and I think three or four of the five companies Tried to sell her a new water heater for thousands and thousands of dollars. One guy was blatantly honest. So, like that's, the last thing I want to run into Is screw somebody over and then have hidden cameras come out like hey, you know, like.
Speaker 3:This is what happened.
Speaker 1:It's so. It's like you got a boy, the situation at all costs, you know so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if the economy is lower, do you think more people will try to take advantage of other people? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:We live in a pretty twisted world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so. So on green days fellas, If you're looking at stocks, maybe you have less likely chances of getting screwed you know If it's red days, you know you better have your awareness up. You know, have your guard up, but uh, no, yeah so we talked a lot about work. You talked a lot about maintenance. I want to talk about, you know, when you got the opportunity to ride your first bull. You know how did that happen.
Speaker 1:Oh man.
Speaker 3:So I uh talk about work. Let's talk about what makes me.
Speaker 1:It started off with me riding horses. That's kind of what kicked off the bull riding thing. So I've always been a fan of watching rodeo on TV, watching YouTube videos of these bull riders and bronc riders and stuff. So About a year and a half, two years ago, I was dating this barrel racer girl and barrel racing is a predominantly female sport and make a clover around barrels with horses.
Speaker 1:So, um, we split up and I Ended up getting into horses. I was sitting at home board shortly after that breakup. It was the winter time and I'm like man, you know, it's too. It's too cold to ride out. We're gonna ride motorcycles. I'm a big motorcycle guy too. So when the salt flies I'm putting that bike away for the winter. But I'm sitting there just bored, like man. I've got nothing going on.
Speaker 1:And there's a riding stable right down the street from me and I called them up. I said hey, you know, I'm, I'm brand new to this. I'd like to get involved, start riding some horses, because it seems like a Really fun thing to do. And they said well, hey, you know we, we got an opening tonight. Why don't you come on down? So I went down there, rode for an hour as a private lesson, immediately fell in love with it, did a few private lessons and they said hey, man, we are, we have confidence in you. We could put you out in a group lesson. Group lessons, they're a little less expensive than a ride, than a single, you know one-on-one lesson. So the group lessons are fun.
Speaker 1:You got a lot other people in there that you know, ride horses. All different ages, it's all adult, you know. So, from like 18 to, you know, 60, 65 years old. We're in there hanging out with everybody ride horses around arenas. You know, in the winter we got an indoor arena, in the summer we got an outdoor. So I Was doing some research online. I wanted to try to get into, get into bull riding and I Usually you got to start when you want to go pro. You got to start young and you got to be tough as nails. Those guys are a different breed of people and I've learned pretty quickly after my experience. I'm come. I'm not cut off for that. I'll never go pro. But I found this guy never say never never.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, it's I, it's. It's a tough life from the guys that I know that do it. They're always on the road. But to get back to how I got into it, I was, I was doing some research online. I was looking at rodeo schools. You know, just practice pens. There's a practice pen about four hours south of here. I don't have any bull riding equipment. I didn't have a helmet or a vest or a bull rope or spurs or anything like that.
Speaker 1:So a gentleman named Lyle Sanky he's a Really famous rodeo cowboy that that rodeoed in the late 80s and early 90s. He was a saddle-bronk rider and a bull rider. He, once he retired from rodeoing, he started a school called Sanky rodeo schools. So he teaches bull riding and he teaches saddle-bronk riding and he teaches bull fighting, and bull fighting is just like the they call them rodeo clowns. Those guys are awesome. I mean a lot of respect to those guys because they're in there with every single ball. You know, we just get on one and then get out of there as quickly as we can. So I found his school online and it was booked up for months and months and months and months. So I hopped on one.
Speaker 1:I think I waited eight months to go down to the school and he was having a school in Oak Hill Ohio. So that's like southern southern Ohio and he's got a stock contractor that that travels with him. So he has schools in Texas, a lot of schools in Texas, he's travel, he travels everywhere. So he hauls a big trailer, all his gear and supplies, all his equipment and he has stock contractors that he hires to bring bowls or, you know, bucking broncs to these different rodeo events. So we were at a place called the Diamond J rodeo company in Oak Hill Ohio and it was a three-day, three-day school. So basically I Dragged my dad and my brother down there with us with me, because if I got hurt I wouldn't come in but drive myself home, you know, if I broke an ankle or something like that. So they really enjoyed going to see that. But I signed up for the school, went down to Oak Hill. This is, I believe, april of last year or April of this year, in about eight months, since I've been on a bull.
Speaker 1:Oh, your first bull yeah first, first, first time getting on. Like I said, I grew up Valentine. We do not have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought that you, like, grew up in southern Illinois or something. No, it's like you look like you're straight from the south.
Speaker 1:No, no, I eventually I'll move down there, but no, I'm gonna put her a flag no, confederate flags up.
Speaker 3:A lot of American flags, but uh, do you story the first bull.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we get down to Oak Hill and my, my dad and brother, they wanted to trailer a motorcycle down because we're in the hills, it's beautiful out there, my brother wanted to go out riding. So we trailer the bike down. I show up bright and early. The school don't start till eight, eight thirty. I show up at seven. You know ask hey man, how can I help you set up? We're getting all these kind of get me acquainted, all the equipment. We're setting bull ropes out.
Speaker 1:A bull rope is basically the rope that you tie around that ropes ropes, chest, mm-hmm, to hold on to when you're, when you're getting on a ride. So we're tying all these bull ropes on the fence getting getting ready for all the other students to show up, and they have a few. Uh, it's called a barrel. Basically it's just this big mechanism that rocks back and forth and you sit up on top of it to practice lifting up. You know when you, when you, when you get on a bull, that bull's gonna rear up on you and you got to get up over its head to take its power away. So if you fall backwards and that thing goes to buck, you're gonna go right off the rear end of it.
Speaker 1:Well, so we're kind of going. He's a. He's a big storyteller, so he's telling all these stories from his rodeo days and we're down there with, I want to say, 25 people were down there, a lot of young kids. I think the oldest guy there was 35, maybe 40 years old and Day one or pretty much going over all the ground rules. You know what to do, what not to do. You stay the hell out of the way if that bulls in the arena. You, you're not in there. I mean you let the bullfighters do what they're doing, let that bull get up out of there. So we're going over. You know all the equipment that we're gonna use spurs, you know, like I said, bull, vast, bull, vast. Just it's a puncture vest. I mean if you get stomped on you're still gonna be pretty hurt. It helps from getting actually punctured, you know.
Speaker 1:You get horned or something like that. So we're getting all this stuff set up now. We didn't nobody was wearing champs, unfortunately a lot of cowboy hats, but yeah, the when we're getting everything set up and get our helmets adjusted. You wear a mouth guard because if you take one to the chin you could, you know, break your teeth, you could you knock yourself out. You get pretty hurt.
Speaker 1:So these are not rank balls, these are. These are just practice balls that were on and a rank balls. It's basically just like a bull that really, really bucks hard. So we're on some practice balls and the stock contractor is awesome. They're getting these balls unloaded off the trailer, bringing them back around the arena and get them in this corral. It's basically a bullpen where they all hang out till it's time to start lining them up to get in a bucking shoot.
Speaker 1:So Lyle's telling all these stories and he's just kind of teaching us some some things. I mean none of. There's a few younger kids that had ridden before. The vast majority of us have never, never, been on a bull. So he's going over the basics and we have lunch and this is day one. He says, all right, well, who's, who's ready to get on? So we're. You know I'm like, oh yeah, let's go, let's, let's get on, I'm getting ready. And they just keep saying, hey, just stay calm, you know, just remember to breathe, try to think about driving forward, stop locking it with your heels. See where spurs, and the spurs are kind of they're tweaked inwards and those spurs help you stay on. They kind of grab that bulls like his, his ribs, mm-hmm. So that's, that's one thing. We tie our boots on to us with with leather straps, because if they get ripped off you know they're not gonna do us any good. So we tie those on. And he's calling us up one by one.
Speaker 1:You know, ethan, come up here, mike, go over there, josh, you, you get on on shoot number four. So we're up there getting ready and these bowls are in the shoot. So one by one, we're starting to pluck these bulls. You know, get on these bowls and go out. So I was number three up and I dropped my bull rope down in that shoot we there's a guy with a grabber it's like a long, basically like a long stick with a with a hook on it to grab the bottom side of your rope, to bring it up, because you don't want to go, you can't let go in there, you'll get hurt. So they bring that rope up, bring it over the top of the bowl and they they tied on there lightly so that you could get get into that shoot. So you're standing over that, you're standing over that bowl just looking down on it. You're getting really amped up. You know it's just. It was a huge adrenaline rush. It was unbelievably awesome.
Speaker 1:And they teach us how to, how to mount this ball. We get on, we want to put both our feet on its back, but we can't. We don't step hard, we don't want to hurt the ball. You know we're it's, we're not. You know we're bucking bulls, but they're animals. We got to be careful we don't hurt them there at their livestock and they make these guys money. So teach us how to get on. Put your feet on and you slide down and you sit your butt on that bowl as soon as you can, because the more time you stand up with your arms like that, that bowl Decided to kick or buck or anything and it knocks your arm off and you fall into that bucking shoot, you're gonna get hurt. You're, you know, you could get really, really injured.
Speaker 1:So they say get on, I'm in fast you, you, you get in and you drop in and you stay on that ball. So we're sitting on these bulls, wait and wait, and for waiting for our puller to pull the gate and Use this stuff called rosin. It's really sticky. If you warm it up with your hands, it gets really sticky.
Speaker 1:So these bull ropes have a bunch of rosin on them and they're pretty simple ropes. I mean, it's literally just like a I don't know if it's cloth, I don't know what material, it's a soft material that wraps around it and then there's a little knuckle pad with a little bit of foam on it so that you don't you know, you don't hurt your knuckles too bad. We got a glove on. We tape our gloves on so you lock your hand into that, into that rope. The ropes pretty thin. I mean you're just, you're just hanging on by the tips of your fingers and you got to warm up that rope, get that rosin nice and sticky, warm that rope up, bring it through once you, once you pull that thing you got to warm up that rope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got a warm to rope up. You know, get that rosin nice and sticky and warm so it'll stick in your hands. It doesn't get yanked out. Um, you tell him to pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. It gets tighter and tighter and tighter and you're you're sitting on that pole, you know, with your arm just locked into your crosser, so you're pulling it. He brings that tail into the rope around you, wrap it around your fingers. If you look online, some guys put one through their pinky like that. Other guys just hold it. I was. I had so much adrenaline going I had no idea what so.
Speaker 1:So I got this vest on, I got my spurs on a helmet mouth garden, I got a hell of a gag reflex. So I had to cut that mouth guard up pretty, pretty far because I couldn't you know, I couldn't keep that thing in my mouth. So you know you're, you're in there just gritting your teeth holding on to that mouth guard, your helmets nice and tight, and they say, hey, you ready to go? So they, you know, yeah, I'm ready to go, let's go. So you sit forward to keep your chest forward. You sit up, take your hand off that shoot. You nod your head, so I can. You nod your head. That gate flings open and that bowl takes off. So, um, I got on four of them. I didn't ride a single one. Riding is just basically saying, I'm afraid, seconds. I got bucked off pretty quickly after, after every single After, every time I nodded my head. I was eating dirt Within a few seconds beforehand.
Speaker 1:But you know you're thinking about all that training and everything they tell you and you're like you know what drive forward, keep your chest up, hold on, watch that bull's head. You want to go, you want to kind of you kind of want to. You know, drive your hips in your arm. That bull's going right. You're gonna try to stay with it. You got to stay up. So you know, the second that shoot opens, everything just goes black. You don't think anything and then, boom, it's over. You know, then you're, then you're on the ground, you're scrambling to get up. Sometimes that bull go after you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so I've seen the world's most amazing videos. There's a lot of bull riding, yeah, a lot of problems. We're a guy gets out safely when the guys, when the bull freakin stops on. But and this was back then, so like in the 80s probably or the 90s when this happened I mean so, while you said his name is, yeah, he probably went through like bulls, like that ranked bulls, you know, like so that's crazy, but so you were falling off all day right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So throughout the three days, like I said, I hadn't. I didn't ride one the full eight seconds. And Nobody in the group even the kids that had ridden you know time, 15, 20, 30 times None of them rode, none of them. None of them stayed on the whole time and One of the bullfighters his name was Tristan.
Speaker 1:I'll never forget this kid. He was awesome. He lived down in Ohio. He was just hired on with the stock contractor to come help us out and be a bullfighter. So he, he was awesome.
Speaker 1:He was in the ring the whole time. He was trying to talk us through it. You know, a stay calm, smile, man. Bull riding is fun. You know, we're in there, just, you know, just like freaking out, trying to stay calm. He's like look man, it's just riding balls, like relax, it's fine. You know, you just just do what you got to do, stay on that thing and get out of the way. So, tristan, they put Tristan on the rink, his bull they had at the end of the, at the end of the deal, because we were all giving him shit about. You know, oh, you're talking all this and that just smile, smile, smile.
Speaker 1:This bull that he hopped on. It was unbelievable. This bull that he hopped on jumped out of the air at least four feet clean off the ground and he, he didn't get bucked at all. He stayed on the foyer seconds. It was very impressive to see him, see him ride those bowls and he, I believe a year, maybe a year and a half before got bucked off in the shoot, fell underneath that bull and got his neck broken. He recovered from that and the the time that he rode for us was the first time he had gotten on a bull since he broke his neck. So he, he was pretty amped up when he he didn't. He landed on his feet. He didn't even land on his back or an honest hands when he jump.
Speaker 2:He landed on his feet after the after, after, after his eight seconds and riding yeah he landed on his feet.
Speaker 1:He didn't even know when he broke his neck. I don't know what. He didn't tell us a story, but it was uh. This is the second. This is the first time he had ridden after he broke his neck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he landed on his feet man.
Speaker 1:Just like you, knew exactly what he was doing. It was unbelievable okay.
Speaker 2:So you told us about bull riding. What is this scoring like? How does that work, like scoring and bull riding? Okay, cuz I only knew like a little bit. I only knew like, okay, my friend did, like you know, four seconds or something. Four point two seconds on a bull, you know yeah so.
Speaker 1:So on a bull ride, on a successful ride, when you go eight seconds, there's a hundred points. This is to the best of my knowledge. Like I said, I'm not a rodeo cowboy, I've only done this a couple times but there's a hundred points to be made. The bowl gets 50 points and you get 50 points depending on how ranked that bull is and depending on how good you ride. So that's kind of how you get your scoring. So you know, if I ride that bull for eight seconds and I look like I'm struggling, it's there's, there's a, there's an etiquette to it. You know you got to look good. Keep your shirt tucked in. You want to look presentable.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, presentable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you want to look presentable. So you know if you're spurring that ball, if you're, if you're digging your heels in and doing what you're doing, if it looks like you're riding that ball, you're gonna get. You're gonna get a high score. If the bulls, if the bulls good at bocking, if it's, if it's rank, if it's doing what it should do, that's that bulls gonna score high as well. So when you're talking like PBR or PCB or one of those big name rodeo companies, I want to say some of the biggest guys are JB, mooney, lane Frost, tough heatman, they're all. They're all really legendary bull riders. And JB he just retired recently. He got injured pretty bad quite a few times. I think he's broken both of his legs at least twice.
Speaker 2:So I can't even imagine like you're. This is why country kids are like on a whole mother level.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 2:I just broke my neck, but I'm gonna get right back on that kid was a nut back he was.
Speaker 1:He was the epitome of a good old boy. I mean, he was he was built like an ox and he had a heart of gold. I mean he, he had the soul in him. So it was. It was cool to see that, but um, so, like I mean that's, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Uh, but when you fall where you like, flipping over the wall, like like, or where you just falling to the side or like how, how is it going? Because I've seen like videos of dudes like doing a full, like flip over the wall and just running to the gate, and it always like it, always like dawns on me, because a broken neck usually means a spinal cord injury. Yeah, I mean like me, yeah, like someone that could be in a position like me, like, so you're doing something extremely dangerous that could cause a spinal cord injury, but you're doing it because you love it, you know. So it's like pick your poison and, um, sometimes people fall the wrong way, and one of those people that come to mind Is Christopher Reeves, because he wasn't even riding a bull, he was riding a horse, you know, and he broke his neck Because it popped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, it's, it's interesting. It's like you said, it's really, it's like you pick your poison. I mean, we're here for for life's a journey, it's not really a race. So you know, when it's time, it's time. But what?
Speaker 1:When I got bucked off, the one thing that he, that Lyle, really drilled into our heads is it's called a hang up. So if you're riding with your left hand, you know you want to get off on that left-hand side, so you want to dismount, throw your arm over, get off on that left-hand side. If you get off on the right, you could have a hang up. That hand can hang up in that, in that bull rope, and then you start getting dragged around arena by this bucking ball. You fall underneath the thing. You get pretty hurt.
Speaker 1:So when I got bucked off, I, you know I it was the one thing that I remembered was get off on the left, because if not you're gonna be in big trouble. And yeah, no, I wasn't flipped or anything like that. These balls weren't that rig. Um, so I had a bull come, my second bull that I got on. He came out of the gate, buck twice and I ended up. I ended up losing it, hopped off on the left and as I was going off, I'm hitting the ground Kind of backwards, so my feet are towards the, towards the bulls head and his bulls feet come right down across my back. So you could see, on the bull vast there's, like you know, it's mud stains. So you could just see that that mud stain go right across my back and I had a hoof mark on my, on my lower back, for a little while I'd want on my inner thigh Kid got bucked off.
Speaker 1:16 year old kid got bucked off there and I watched his arm snap and that was on day three. That was towards the end of the deal. Has Mao was down there. He was a bull rider. He that's what he did. He lived in North Carolina. He came up from North Carolina to do this. I guess they do a lot of bull riding in North Carolina. They don't do a lot of it up here in Illinois.
Speaker 3:I'd be so scared to watch my son ride a huge animal that could just crush it.
Speaker 2:I was just about to ask the way. But is it like just the culture, like you, just you want to be a bull rider, like it's just what gets the fucking, the panties down? Like you know, it wasn't really more, it was.
Speaker 1:It wasn't. It was more for a me thing. You know, just like, if I hey, you know, maybe I'm good at this, maybe I could pursue it as a career. After I got bucked off the first time, I knew immediately that this was not for me. I was shaking in my boots knowing that I got called up to go hop on again. I'm like, oh man, you know, that's when the adrenaline really starts kicking in and yeah, cuz you said, you really Really sit, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Once you get on, you say saddle or no?
Speaker 1:there's no saddle no saddle, just a rope, and then there's a Hard on your balls, there's a, there's a flay it's called a flank strap and that's what makes the bulls buck. There's a lot of controversy on the internet. You know they wrapped the rope around the bull's testicles, this and that. It's not true at all. All this is it's a soft cloth rope with 2d rings on it. That you know. When you pull d-rings you could tie stuff up so that that rope gets tied around that bull's hips and all that bull's trying to do is kick that rope off. So when you nod your head, they're gonna pull that rope and that bull's ready to ready to start bucking. So it doesn't hurt the ball at all. It's a really soft like cloth fabric.
Speaker 2:I was gonna ask you about the testicles, because everyone Know that that's what I thought they use. They just rip out their testicles. No, piss them off.
Speaker 1:No, there's it's. I couldn't imagine trying to wrap a bull's testicles With the rope. I mean you're gonna get hurt real bad. Those things are not gonna have it.
Speaker 3:So all, like I said, all this is just gonna stay calm like up getting my nuts wrapped again.
Speaker 1:All right, then I'll get angry.
Speaker 3:Let me get angry after you're done.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. That's it's not a thing. I mean, it's an old wives tale, um, made up by the, by the pita people. You know the animal. They don't want to see the animal abuse these bowls are. You know they basically told us look, don't hurt these animals. You know if you, if something's gonna get hurt, you get hurt. You know you sign the contract, you guys got the insurance. These bowls are our livelihood and we care for them. We love them. They love these animals. They're like pets to them. You know you get on them and ride them, but During the day they hang out in pastures eating beautiful green grass, getting grain, getting whatever they eat, and they're just hanging out. So you know, they know what their job is. When they get into that arena or when they get into that bullpen, they, they know it's time to go, but 90% of their lives they're just hanging out eating grass.
Speaker 2:All I think about is to show Yellowstone when, when you're talking about this, they just eat Montana. Like you know, pastures beyond the eye can see. You know, and I feel like it's so cool having you on here and your energy, because we're so used to people who are like, like you know more in the mobile area, more in the tech area, you know. Like you know beat music and stuff like that. But you're like old-school man, you like the outdoors, you like you know it's dirt biking. You know like horseback riding. You like what's the plan? Like you stay here. Do you want to like move? Like to like a pasture?
Speaker 1:You know, I mean obviously, yeah, I'd love to own a horse ranch. I mean it would be really cool. I don't train horses. I've got some friends that train horses and I've got some friends that are vets. Owning a horse, to my understanding, is very expensive, not only the cost up front, and it depends on what bloodline you buy, it depends on what you want to do with it.
Speaker 1:Um, but horses, they, to my understanding, they like to get hurt and they don't want to live. I mean they, you know they obviously want to live, but when they get hurt, you know, let's say, the difference between a horse and a cow. If a cow is out in a pasture and it gets a tough car in a fence you know a barbed wire fence that cows gonna hang out and wait for somebody to come help it. A Horse, it's a, it's a pre-animal, so they have a really severe flight or flight, flight or flight instinct and when they get into a pinch like that, they can, they can really hurt themselves, break their legs. I mean it's If a, if a horse got stuck in a fence, it's gonna thrash and freak out until it either cuts itself loose, breaks a leg, bleeds out. I mean that's it, they, they go downhill pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:Wow, so, um yeah, so we talked about the testicles with horses, is the truth. It's a broken leg. It's done. I.
Speaker 1:Believe. So I don't think that a horse could recover from a broken leg. I I'm not experienced enough to tell you yes, it can. I don't think it can, though, and I think they just not pretty good. It'll probably cost a lot too. Well, the thing is like it's gotta move around. I mean, if it's got a broken leg, it can't, it can't stay up, it's it's, it's just gonna lay there, and they can't lay for too Long. It's kind of like an elephant, you know. The organs get crushed, so they gotta, they got to get up and move around. So I believe that if that happens there, they're done for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So your goal would be to have, like, like, like, a horse. And it's funny, brought up the price because my um good friend, colonel Smith is His wife at the time had a horse, right. They bought a horse $52,000 that's how much. This horse was, fast one, it was just a regular horse, a $52,000 horse, insane right. And then you have to keep up with, like, the vet bills. You got to keep up with the stables and the washing, the feed, everything. But when you have your own ranch leg and you're in charge of it, do you think you could ever be in charge of a horse?
Speaker 1:if you learned? If I learned, oh yeah, I would. I'm a huge animal guy. I got two great dogs at home, two really cute little girls, auderman, millie. They're my dogs. One's a golden retriever and another's like a German shepherd beagle mix. They're both rescue. So, yes, love animals. I'd like to eventually um, who knows what's gonna happen.
Speaker 2:Do you see yourself like farming, like if you ever done that?
Speaker 1:Agricultural farming, like corn and beans type farming, no, not really. No, it'd be more of like a horse horse ranch hobby farm, so to say I. I think farmers are some of the lifeblood of America. I mean industrial agriculture. Without farmers we we're not eating. So I've got a lot of respect for those guys.
Speaker 2:A big question is like would you, would you ever want to, like you know, sell meat like a percent, percent, like if you were a farmer?
Speaker 1:Not necessarily. No, I've never. I don't really know much about the industry. Um, I Know it's cutthroat, it's pretty cutthroat. Um, you know farming it's, it's. It's difficult to make money I mean these harvesters, these combines and stuff for our five hundred six hundred thousand dollars, and I believe that that's something that you, counter, are born into. I think it's hard to get into it From as you know, you know, you know you know fourth, fifth, sixth generation farmers you know you don't hear of. You know John, from down the street, you know in.
Speaker 2:Palestine.
Speaker 1:Oh, john bought this farm. It's like I don't. I mean eventually, yeah, it could happen, but no, I don't foresee myself doing that. It's not really something that interests me.
Speaker 2:Well, I totally agree with you on that, 100%. I mean, you have to learn like. I remember I went to go Genoa, genoa do you know where Genoa is? Yeah, I was hauling bale with my hauling bales of hay, with my friend Travis and I left weights, bro, like I was like good. I thought I was like good, like like dirt. We started early in the morning and then when we like got to like the afternoon, we had a lunch break and then we had two more hours left. Bro, my, I couldn't feel my fucking hands because of, like these farm country boys Just throwing bales of hay like on the fucking, like it was. It was a really cool moment because it got me to really appreciate Travis, because at first I was like this fucking doosik or whatever you know. I mean shout out Travis, use, by the way, if you're listening. But yeah, no, it was cool. It was cool to see, you know, it's cool to like see a different scenery rather than the city you see land.
Speaker 1:It's something different. I think that's why I'm so attracted to it, because I didn't grow up doing it. Um, it's, it's new and it's exciting and different.
Speaker 2:What do people like say to you in public, like when they see you walk around like you're in the wrong place?
Speaker 1:I get asked all the time hey, are you from Texas? No, I'm from Palatine actually. Yeah well, you don't look like you'd be from Palatine. It's like when did you get?
Speaker 3:the influence, like what got you your style I.
Speaker 1:One day you just woke up like that looks cool.
Speaker 3:I want that. You went to the you went to a section of Cabello's like, yeah, I'm gonna get that.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get those overalls and go over the boot part. You know I like, I like western wear, I like looking good. You know it's tucked in shirts, nice jeans.
Speaker 2:You know, looking presentable, I think it seems like you have good manners to me. I'm like like with probably with women to you, probably really nice you know, I just a nice guy, you know, I try, I try to. Say yes, ma'am. You say yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, no ma'am.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I say it and you worked, grown up with it, or do where you my dad instilled a lot of respect and women for me respect in general, but women he loves. My mama like she is like the best thing that ever happened. She is my mom's a sweetheart. But just seeing, you know, growing up, seeing how he cared about her and you know the things that he would do, just you know, not out of pocket, but just different ways that he thought about her throughout the day, it kind of stuck with me, I mean it's Did you live in like a neighborhood or did you have like a house like that was like kind of isolated, like kind of like this house?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we grew up in a neighborhood Back in the day before, back in the day when we were young, myself and my brothers I'm four years apart between me and the youngest one, so it was more isolated back then as Neighbors got old or moved away or passed away. Their properties would be sold and then they would tear down their small houses and build large houses. So if you looked at the neighborhood I grew up in, you know 20 years ago, compared to today, our house does not fit the appeal you know. There's. There's beautiful homes on that street.
Speaker 1:We have truck tires, pick up truck bed cabs sitting in the yard. I mean, we had chickens there at one point in time, like let's go, it's. It's totally not, not what it used to be. Yeah, I grew up in a neighborhood. Sustainability you got some chickens. We did. Yeah, we did. I'd like to get some more. But there's a force that we used to go hang out in there's like we called it the swamp. It was more just like a wetland that some older kids built a treehouse in the middle of this wetland Couple years before we were old enough to go hang out. So we had a pretty fun childhood doing that.
Speaker 2:That's good at school, that you like Figured out like an identity for yourself. You know I want to be this type of person. I want to look like. This is something like. It's kind of like me. I started with like jerseys at first when I was in the hospital. I started with like t-shirts, you know, and I started wearing jerseys. I never thought I'd be wearing football jerseys eight years later, but I am wearing football jerseys.
Speaker 1:You got a nice jersey, by the way I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I wore just for you because I thought you were a son of a boy. Yeah, I.
Speaker 1:Appreciate the thought man. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much so everything that you've covered, you know, from work to picking up the hobby that you never thought you'd get in, you know. Is there any advice that you would give to the audience on how to live life to the max?
Speaker 1:and anything at all To live life to the max. I mean, I Guess I could just say if you're, if you're, gifted an opportunity, you take it. You know you make the best of it. Some days are gonna suck and you're gonna have to work real hard To get to where you want to be, but if you believe in it, I mean it'll pay off eventually and you'll get to where you want to go and it's just a daily thing. You just got to take it one day at a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll take that leave of faith do good today and hopefully something good is gonna happen to you tomorrow. So that's kind of how I, that's kind of how I live my life. I mean that. And then you know, just making living every day Like it's your last. I know it sounds cliche to say that, but you know, we don't know how short life's gonna be, so why not just take, you know. Take what you got and just just live it up to the max.
Speaker 2:Get out of bold, say I'm ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I hate to live with.
Speaker 3:Hold on, let's be cliche. Grab life by the horns.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, living with regrets like man, I wish I went to that bull ride school. You know it's like I'd rather. I'd rather just say yeah, you know I was able to go do that, even if I got hurt. Like you know, I did that and I got a story to tell.
Speaker 3:So yeah, all from your buddy that brought it up to you right from your old job.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if anyone out there has an old friend that says, hey, let's go, let's go knit some sweaters, you know, go knit a fucking sweater or something, you know, go pick up a hobby Maybe you'll love it, if you like.
Speaker 2:Scrapbook, fucking scrapbook.
Speaker 3:Even if you want to roll some hay with some farmer you just make, come on, go try some new. You were about to go down a dark road. All right, let's steer. No pun intended, steer and away. All right.
Speaker 1:No idea.
Speaker 2:Look at, tell people what are you living.
Speaker 1:I'm living life to the max every single day you.