Talkin about the quintessential stereotypical country family. The Leffew’s, for out right hospitality, kindness and sense of humour, would be hard to beat. They have embraced Sull and I and though we are not ‘from the land’ or been brought up around bulls and the hospitality has been overwhelming.

Gary Leffew is a legend in the U.S. , a former world champion bull rider, PRCA hall of famer, 8 time NFR qualifier, NFR average winner and past bull riding director of the PRCA.  There isn’t anything this guy doesn’t know about bulls, bullriders and bullriding. But the thing that intrigues me most about this man, is not only was he one of the most forward thinking bullriders of his time, not only studying the greats but video recording there rides, playing them back in slow motion and dissecting every recovery and back arch to the frame but he spent as much time understanding the psyche of bullriding. He is a firm believer in you are what you think and this must, no doubt, give Sullivan great comfort seeing he has neither the experience, the  physique or  the upbringing of the typical bullrider.

Gary and his two sons, Brett and Jud, have been challenged with the task to turning Sullivan into a bull rider. Day 1 involved lots of class time going thru the 7 basics of the perfect bullride posture; positions of the back, the head, the knees, the thighs, the spurs, the arms, the hands etc. How to react in the shoot and out of the gate . How to deal with a bull turning in and turning out. Barrels were used to imitate the bulls and styles of legends of the game were reviewed in slowmo. Once a spring rain had past Gary raked  the arena by tractor and the boys were chomping at the bit to get out there and test their newly acquired skills on the real mc Coy.

Gary’s son Brett  had explained in the lecture that they needed to break old habits and replace them with the new. No problems there from Sull’s perspective, no habits to break. Brett, who must be one of the best Bull riding coaches in the world, explained that they may go backwards before they see the improvement in their newly adjusted styles.

The boys looked excited but also frustration at not being able to get it instantly , was evident, but if it was that easy, everyone would be a legend like Gary and there is only a handful of those in the world.

Sull looked much better already than his first few rides in Aileron. Posture and body was sitting much straighter on the bull (Pooh Bear Gone Wild) and to date it was his longest ride before he hit the dirt and smacked into the fence with his head. Lucky he had that helmet on and he got up unscathed. His second ride, again the back is looking good and he’ll need to work on his arms next but this time he was dismounted from the back of the bull and landed on his back hard, with an almighty thump. I heard and felt it 200 metres away from where I was filming on the hill. Gary joked he’s left his mark in the mud, Sull’s Lake, which even the stand up comic and the rest of the boys had a good chuckle about. There will be a few saw bones tomorrow but they’re straight back into it at 8am and day 2. Wander how Sull’s body is holding up. He seems just as determined and gaining confidence.

All the best Toddy

Like most trips I’ve been on o/s, always seems to be some type of bump in the road. After coming off the high of Sullivan staying alive at the rodeo in Aileron near Alice Springs, we said goodbye for a couple of days as I headed to Stradbroke Island to catch up with a mate David Hannan, who I do a bunch of underwater filming with and Ronnie Bakir, a guy that helped fund Schappelle Corby’s initial legal challenge when she got busted in Bali. Ron’s an absolute top bloke and was hammered in the mainstream media for trying to help the girl out. He’s become a good mate and he made the trip to Straddie for the day from the Gold Coast for a catchup.

Anyway I wasn’t to know by the time Sull and I sat down next to each other  at the airport in Brizzie heading to  LA we’d both have had a couple of travel stories to tell. Mine pailed into insignifigance compared to Sull’s. But first a bit about my mate Sullivan, the guy who is about to go on the Bullriding circuit in the US and the subject of my next doco. He’s not the kinda guy you’d expect in a bull ring. Firstly he’s a surfer. Secondly he works in his family’s bookshop and writes books for a living. He use to be a standup comedian and has done all sorts and amongst the many skills that he does possess, being travel organised doesn’t rank as one of his fortes, which he’ll admit openly.

So when we caught up on the plane heading to LA Sull said, Mate have I got a story to tell you. So it goes like this. Neither of us knew that Ayers Rock is about four and a half hours from Alice. So our idea of popping down and having a quick look after the Rodeo turned into a madrush down there, sunset, photos, beers, sleep, 4.30am start and madrush bacxk to get Sull on a Tiger flight at 9am.

We arrive with 10 mins to spare only to find out Sull’s flight to Sydney via Adelaide is delayed. Could have slept in for an hour. Next Sull, who is on the bones of his ass cashwise, finds out from the not so lovely attendant that he’s ticked the wrong box on line, so instead of his baggage costing him 15 bux it will now cost him 50. We say goodbye and I can’t help feeling sorry for him having paid 100s in excess in the past.

I head back into Alice and I have still a few things on my list before I start filming him in California at Gary Leffew’s Bullriding school. I drop into an electrical store to pick up something and as I’m heading out of the carpark in the Britz camper van we’ve shared for 4 days I hear an almighty crunch like I’ve just run over a kid. My hear was in my mouth as I jumped out and looked under the car. Nothing. I looked up to the sky and the top of the camper van had smashed into a cross beam of one of the sails I’d parked under.

My convict crim DNA’s first thought is to say nothing and hope the guy at Britz misses it but I’ve been round long enough to know that Karma will chase my fat ass down and I’ll pay for it in other ways. So I head back to the office and tell the guy straight up, thinking the replacement of that vent once the panel beaters get hold of the quote is going to turn into hundreds of dollars and NO I didnt take out the extra insurance.

He turns around and smiles and says no worries mate, people knock them off all the time. I’m stoked. There’s a thing to be said about being honest.

2 days later Sull get’s on V Australia flight VA 007 with a big grin on his face. ‘Mate you are not going to believe what happened to me when I got to Adelaide’.

Now Sull aint the kind of guy that writes down flight confirmation numbers. He doesn’t print itineraries and now and again he checks his inbox to see where that email is that tells him what flight he’s about to catch. He’s bloody focussed in other areas, you have to be to write a book but as I said travel organisation well…read on..

He wasn’t sure who he was connecting with in Adelaide so he thought he’d go try Tiger first, so he lined up waited got to the front of the queue and no go. Not Tiger. He tried Qantas…zip….Virgin…no go…starting to get closer to dpearture….must have been Jetstar….NOPE!! Can’t get on line to check his confirmation email. Goes back to Tiger, lines up and has a brawl with the attendant, she asys NO WAY your not on. Goes back to Jetstar buys a ticket…300 BUX one way Adelaide Sydney…spewing.

Finally jumps on the flight. Sits down and a hostey comes up to him and says sorry Sullivan can I have a look at your boarding pass….please follow me, your on the wrong flight this flight goes to the Gold Coast…even though his luggage is now heading to Sydney….he finally gets on the right flight.

So we laugh our head offs and celebrate the fact that we are both on the right flight and he is still alive after the bullriding with a glass of red compliments of V Australia.

We jump out at LA and decide to split as we head thru customs…Sull doesn’t have enough money to be asking for 6 months in the US and I have a bunch of camera equipment that may or maynot pass customs for the visa I’m on ie Biz/pleasure vs Journo with a carnet.

I get straight thru and whilst I’m at the carousel I see Sull being dragged off by a customs guy that may or may not get his sense of humour. After a nervous 15 minutes wait he meets me at the carousel….both relieved once again.

We pick up the rentacar and head into downtown LA. I’ve pre-loaded the American maps onto the GPS I’ve brought along and punch in the address. WQe are going to see ROAR entertainment on Wilshire Blvd. We grab a small map from AVIS just in case. Mr Organisor(at the helm..that’s me) drives us around in circles for about an hour and a half as we debate the merits of the new map system, the GPS and the english lady giving us directions in a computer voice that we are really really starting to hate!! We drive downtown only to find out that when she tells us…you have reached your destination….you have reached your destination we are actually about 20ks away. I’m guessing I’ve hit a button for police station downtown LA or something.

We try again and its is about 45 minutes away in the direction we have just come from…spewing, half asleep and getting late. We are still in good spirits and laughing about the ridiculosness of this travel week and how dead we are and all we want to do is go to sleep. It is now about midnight in our body clocks.

We finally make it to Roar but can’t find a carpark in Beverly Hills. We spot one and I do a quick u turn, driving on the wrong side of the road and collect the gutter and puncture the tyre….just about to cry…no still laughing but spewing …can do with this like a whole in the head….get out the spare…it’s a donut…size of a motor bike tyre and then we cant find a wrench to get the nuts off the wheel…..we push the car into a park and head to the meeting.

The guys at Roar borrow some tools and we haed back to the car only to learn that the lift has a wrench ‘hidden’ in the body of it. We feel stupid, laugh and the guy from Roar, Ben looks at us like’ You aussies” He’s a great guy and was very happy.

We head to Santa Monica and then onto Topanga Canyon to stay at a mate’s house. We dont trust the pom on the GPS so I go on my memory of the last time I visited..in the dark…we head past malibu and its about 6pm(Now 6am on our body clocks) Sull crashes out and I’m keeping my eyelids open using matchsticks. I drive past the turnoff by about 10 miles. I stop and buy a 6 pack of Corona and ask directions back that way about 5 miles..I ask another lady just in case…back that way about 10 miles…I get Sull to ask when he’s in a gas station..about 8 miles…we head back..we fine the turn off we drink Corona and die. It’s now noon(we slept about 16 hours) and we are heading to Gary Leffew’s Bullriding ranch where Sull is about to learn to ride bulls for 5 days. Then we are off to the World Cup Bullriding comp. Should be a blast.

So last weekend Sullivan and I headed to Aileron station , 1 and a half hrs North of Alice Springs to give him a taste of what bull riding was all about. Wow , what an amazing place and incredible experience. Those country fold really know how to put on a shindig. Sull was going to have his 2nd ride on a bull and his first on a real one. X world Bull Riding champ , Troy Dunn was on hand to give him plenty of tips and Mad Dog, bullfighter and Troy’s good mate was there to coaxe the bull away if things went wrong.

Neither Sull or I have spent alot of time around bulls or rodeos. We are surfie type. So when the first supoosedly placid bull hit the ring I looked at Sull and went…OH MY GOD…are you sure you wanna do this!! To his credit he said, I gotta get this over with and just start riding some and so he did. He went for it on 6 bulls and survived the lot. Got a hoof in his shin, which didn’t look like fun but he’s campaigning on. The hospitality was incredible. It was a family event and boy do they know how to put on a gig.

Thanks a million to Rob Cook, Troy Dunn, Mad Dog  and all the workers. Top weekend. So now we are off to LA April 9 and Sull will be attending Gary Leffews Bullriding School in Santa Maria California. Keep you posted .