Karen Konz’s curly tight blond curls spilled from her cowboy hat as she swayed back and forth.
The crowd went into a frenzy while a strobe light flashed on her, framing her every move in millisecond increments.
She waved her hat proudly and the crowd gave a loud roar, watching her through the smoky air that floated between them.
With a raise of her arm, the mechanical bull under her slowed to a stop and she climbed off.
“It’s great, very entertaining,” said Konz, 32, of Seattle. “I just like having my friends around, to have a good time with them. And the crowd is a lot of fun, too.”
Konz is one of many who have mounted the back of a mechanical bull in the past couple of years, a trend that’s experiencing its biggest resurgence since it first surfaced in the late 1970s.
But interest is already starting to wane and insurance is getting harder to find and more expensive for bull owners. Many bulls are already being put out to the mechanical pasture after what’s turning out to be about an eight-second ride.
The bull Konz rode was at Cowgirls Inc. in Seattle, an “American saloon” in the style of Gilley’s in Texas and Hogs &Heifers in New York. The Seattle bar celebrates its first anniversary in January and houses the only known permanent mechanical bull in the area.
“It’s been huge for us,” said Wade Peterson, a co-owner of Cowgirls Inc. “In the beginning, we put it in there as just an accessory to the main venue, along with the choreographed dance routines and sassy bartenders.”
The bull is free to ride once you’re inside. There’s a cover charge on some nights.
“It exceeded expectations,” Peterson said of the bull. “And it’s being used from the minute we start it until the end of the night.”
Club Broadway in Everett had a bull in its stable of attractions for a couple of years until wrapping him up and sticking him in a corner about two months ago. The bar switched insurance companies to save some money, and the new provider won’t insure the bull at any price.
“People love it,” Club Broadway manager Alicia Adamson said of the retired bull. “But they don’t love it $20,000-worth every year.”
Adamson said Club Broadway is trying to sell the bull, despite at least 100 complaints that have come since it was banished.
“They freak out,” she said. “Especially, like, bachelorette parties that were already planned.”
The mechanical bull craze is similar to past dance club fads, such as foam dancing and inflatable sumo wrestling suits, Adamson said.
“I think it’s a new generation of people in the bar scene who didn’t experience it before,” she said.
The mechanical bulls first started popping up in bars in the late 1970s. Originally practice tools for real rodeo riders, they began showing up at establishments as an interactive attraction.
The bulls’ popularity surged when John Travolta and Debra Winger mounted one at the original Gilley’s in Pasadena, Texas, in the 1980 movie “Urban Cowboy.”
The recent urban cowboy revival came in 2000, with the movie “Coyote Ugly” about a girl who gets a job at a Hogs &Heifers-style bar in New York, and Madonna’s cowgirl theme on the cover of her album “Music.” The pop diva rode a bull on stage on her tour that year.
Actors Teri Hatcher and Nicolette Sheridan graced the rawhide on a recent episode of “Desperate Housewives,” and a Carl’s Jr. commercial in 2003 made waves with the back-and-forth motion of a blond model riding a mechanical bull while eating a bacon cheeseburger.
Brian Hoffman saw the trend developing and started a mechanical bull rental and sales business in May 2002 after losing his job at Boeing as a software engineering consultant.
Based in Eatonville, south of Tacoma, Hoffman mostly brings his two bulls to local fairs and some bars. Having gotten in early, Hoffman said he has made a tidy sum on the investment and he’s already looking to get out of the business.
The risk exposure is huge, even though he carries a $1 million insurance policy, he said. The bulls are better and safer than ever, featuring soft padding, accurate and manageable controls, and a landing pad that has constant air flowing through it for a soft touchdown.
But accidents can happen and Hoffman feels fortunate he hasn’t had one.
He said the trend has reached a plateau.
“I think 90 percent of your riders just want to ride to get their ticket punched,” Hoffman said. “They want to check it off their list of things to do. It’s a tamer version of going skydiving. When they’ve done it once, they’ll never do it again.
“The luster’s kind of worn off a little bit. We rode the wave, and I don’t want to be sitting there holding the bag with this like I did with the software market.”
But a glimpse inside Cowgirls Inc. on a recent Friday night showed plenty of shine still left on the leather.
A steady stream of riders stepped up to the booth, signed a waiver, gave a thumbprint and took their place on the bucking machine.
Joe Holmes, 31, of Seattle manned the controls: a pair of knobs that direct the spin and bucking action, and a toggle switch that turns the bull left and right.
“Safety’s the main issue here,” Holmes said. “We want to make sure the rider gets on and off easily, and hopefully give them a chance to smile.
“I make it as challenging as I can, then give them just a little more than they can handle so they fall off. And if the rider signals to cut it, then you’re done.”
Miranda Henderson, 22, of Lakewood keeps the line moving, helping would-be riders get their nerve up and reassuring them after they’ve taken their premeditated spill.
“I think it’s awesome,” Henderson said. “It’s an interactive thing. Usually people just sit at a bar and drink. Here, it’s a crazy atmosphere and they can let loose.”
Jeremy Duncan, 22, of Seattle said the mechanical bull is a big part of what brings him to Cowgirls Inc. on a fairly regular basis.
“I like seeing how many cheers I can get,” he said. “That really gets me going.
“It’s one of the main reasons I come here. The other reason is right over there,” he said, gesturing toward the bar, where a handful of waitresses were dancing to Warrant’s “Cherry Pie.”
Jennifer McGuire, 21, of Redmond has ridden the bull a few times since having her birthday party at Cowgirls Inc. in July. She doesn’t see the trend fading anytime soon.
“When you’re drinking, it’s a more fun way to enjoy the place,” she said moments after getting tossed. “I think it will last a while. It’s one of the most popular places, as far as I can tell, and a lot of people like coming here.”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.
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