Myron Duarte of Auburn, Wash., heard the word come down the chutes that his final ride of the day was on a bull that some were calling insane.

But he managed to hang on for his required eight seconds as the 2,000-pound beast spun around underneath his 135-pound frame for a big payday in front of an estimated crowd of 4,500 bullriding fans Sunday afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium.

“I’ve never seen that bull before,” Duarte said of Close Call in between signing autographs. “Everyone told me he was going to be big and stout like those red bulls and I can get along with them pretty good. I knew it would take everything I had and he was even stronger than I expected. I had to move my feet a bit and it never felt like I was in control. I felt like a passenger the whole time. All the ranked bulls are like that.”

His ride paid off with a score of 89, the second-highest of the day. Combined with a first go-around high of 87 on Real Deal (a bull that’s bucked him off three times), Duarte had a $3,000 payday that kept him in the No. 5 spot in the Jack Daniel’s World Standings.

“I haven’t won anything until today,” Duarte said. “The Xtreme Bulls have been hard on me.”

Besides Duarte, only two of the other nine finalists completed their rides. Steve Woolsey of Spanish Fork, Utah, was second with a combined score of 169 (including a day’s high of 91 on Wild One) and Jerrod Ford of Greeley, Colo. was third with 144 points.

Shad Bruhn of Roy, Wash., didn’t put on the type of ride he was hoping for when the former Port Orchard resident was bucked off Black Smoke on his first ride.

“It didn’t work out for me today,” said Bruhn, “that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

It’s been an up-and-down year for the 1993 South Kitsap grad who said he suffered a number of injuries last Fourth of July when one bull hooked him in the sternum, another pulled his shoulder out and another one injured his neck, forcing him to take a break from the sport he’s been doing for 15 years.

“This is my first one back,” he said. “Everyone else is out having a good time and I was home dilly-dallying around. It’s nice to come over here and try to do well in front of the family.”

Among the happy folks at the end of the day were the organizers and sponsors who weren’t sure what to expect from the first-time event.

“It exceeded our expectations,” Cowpokes president JC Carlson said. “I couldn’t even guess. You do something like this for the first time and it’s a roaring success.

“You really have to appreciate the people who help put this one because it is one extra day (beyond the rodeo).”

“For the first time ever out on the peninsula that they knocked them dead with the Clearwater Casino Xtreme Bulls,” said Randy Corley, 10-time rodeo announcer of the year and Silverdale resident. “I think the people want it back for next year.”

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