Let it ride: Patrons part of the show during bikini bull riding at Gilley’s

Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 8:23 a.m.

Felicia was nervous.

It was barely past midnight. The black mechanical bull, stuffed with padding, was waiting in the corral near the dance floor.

"I'm so scared," Felicia said, accidentally swishing her beer to the rim of her glass in an excited frenzy. "I've never done this before."

Sizing up her potential competition, she added, "I don't have the cowgirl look going on. I'm not the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. I'm Korean.

"I'm a minority here."

A glance around the bar proved Felicia right. Among the clean-shaven cowboys kickin' sawdust and the leggy blondes swillin' beers, there was not another Korean in the saloon.

But that probably only mattered to Felicia. As Larry Black, the bull operator, explained to the women before the contest, "This isn't a bull-ride competition. It's a bikini contest on a bull."

And Felicia, an attractive, buxom 23-year-old who didn't want to give her last name, wasn't the only first-time rider.

In all, seven women signed up to mount "Buford" at Gilley's at the New Frontier on a recent Friday night.

Some were regulars who had honed their bull-riding skills to a striptease act. Others were tourists who tucked their poolside outfits into their purses that night, leaving their hotel room ready to fulfill a dare.

Twenty years ago John Travolta might have made mechanical bull riding famous at Gilley's in the movie "Urban Cowboy." But it is bikini-clad women riders who are drawing tourists and locals to Gilley's in Las Vegas.

Forget the adult shows on the Strip. Gilley's and its patrons have turned the honky-tonk bar and restaurant into a popular entertainment destination.

Competing every Friday and Saturday night for $500 in cash and prizes, winners are decided by patrons holding up score cards outside the corral where crowds stand as thick as seven deep.

Degrading to women? Not to these riders. Besides, "boxer bull riding" for men who strip down to their underwear is held each Thursday.

"It's good clean fun," said 30-year-old Bunny Ramon, a stay-at-home mom who slips out of the house a couple nights a month to ride the bull while wearing a thong and bikini top. "I have four kids, I just figure I can do it. Why not?"

Ramon, a model-perfect brunette with olive skin, has placed in the top three so many times in bikini bull riding that she traded in her second-place prizes -- Gilley's jackets -- for the black cowboy hat she was wearing.

Her first-place cash winnings have likely been invested into her wardrobe. Ramon's newly acquired Western look and attitude portray a cowgirl straight from the ranch, though she's originally from Los Angeles and has only been riding Buford for eight months.

Like other bull riders, Ramon can ride the bucking and spinning bull at a moderate speed. Or she can slither provocatively on its back during the much-slower bikini bull riding pace.

"One of my good friends got me hooked on it," Ramon said. "It's the adrenaline. It gets you going."

It also gets the crowd going.

The women have one minute to ride. The bull slowly twists and turns to highlight its riders' moves while "Sweet Home Alabama," "You Shook Me All Night Long" and other songs help fire up the oddly polite crowd.

John Beattie, a tourist from New Zealand who is decades older than the twenty- and thirtysomethings around him, was lured in by the marquee and delighted to be part of the show.

"You see it in the movies and you know what goes with it," said John, who was accompanied by his wife, Margaret. "I wouldn't bloody miss this."

John was the evening's designated timekeeper, a job, Margaret explained, the former wrestler and referee was perfect for.

Glancing over his shoulder, John asked in his New Zealand accent, "Do they have a men's competition as well?"

Unfortunately, the couple was leaving Sunday, so they'd have to miss the men's competition, as well as the women's mud wrestling that takes place Wednesdays.

They would have only this night.

Signing away

At midnight, the California band Thunder Road finished its set. A movie screen scrolled down before the stage to show a video of a cowgirl wearing only a tiny bikini and white cowboy hat riding Buford.

Her fleshy buttocks caught the attention of a few cowboys scattered on the outskirts of the dance floor.

It was sign-up time.

The nervous Felicia would be the first to sign on. A few minutes later, Shauna Cordova, a regular rider, arrived.

"I come here almost every week," said Cordova, a 21-year-old blonde who grew up in Las Vegas and rode her first bull at the age of 13. "I'm really competitive so I'm doing stuff all over. I do mud wrestling here on Wednesdays."

Wearing tight jeans and a white T-shirt that read, "Foxy Forever," she politely excused herself and stepped across the blue mat of the corral to take a practice ride. The expected hoots and yee-haws erupted the minute she hopped on the bull.

During the next 20 minutes several women would follow, jerking and twisting on the menacing Buford. Some riders would be bucked off.

After everyone finished their practice rides, Black grabbed stacks of white score cards and held them high.

"Yeah!" hollered two men alongside the corral who knew what the gesture meant. They, and two others on the opposite side of the corral, were given stacks of score cards.

Judging for bikini bull riding is entirely subjective, Gilley's General Manager Stoney Gray explained earlier in the evening.

"It's all about the judges and their personal preference," Gray said. "I've had girls come in and ride it real sexy and lose. I had a girl riding last week in a bikini and roller skates. She met the dress code -- no nudity."

Behind the scenes

In the dressing room the women were already in their thongs and bikini tops, applying lipstick and giving each other pep talks.

"Ladies, listen up," Black said matter-of-factly as he walked in. "I've got four straws in my hand. Short straw goes first. If you draw the short straw, you go first. End of discussion.

"We're not licensed for nudity," he continued. "If you expose yourself, you're going to be escorted out."

Three late-arriving contestants were ushered into the dressing room. Black left to grab more straws from the bar.

Standing, waiting, wearing a string-thin orange thong and matching bikini top, 28-year-old Kirsten Guistolise from Chicago admitted she was a little nervous.

"My husband and friend got me to do this," Guistolise said with an exaggerated wince. "I have a baby at home."

As first-timers Guistolise and Felicia clung together, Felicia drew the shortest straw and Guistolise promised to cheer her on.

But before anyone knew it, Felicia had slipped out of the room and was already in the spotlight riding Buford with her pack of friends and everyone else in the bar cheering her on.

The rides had begun.

Felicia's ride (and black bikini) was considered a success. She was awarded three nines and an eight out of a perfect score of 10; Guistolise, who had never stepped foot in in a country bar or ridden a bull, didn't fare so well; she scored mainly sixes.

Ramon, who walked into the corral wearing tight, white shorts and a white blouse that exposed her bikini top, would score high.

She mounted the bull, removed her blouse and leaned forward to offer spectators a better view of her cleavage. Carefully, she rose and stood on the moving bull, then pulled down her shorts. Beginning to lose her balance, she sat back down and laid on her back to scoot the shorts off her toes.

"I love her, dude!" 26-year-old Tracy Day shouted to his nearby friend.

The studious and confident Cordova, who argued that bikini bull riding was not degrading to women by saying "It's all about what you're comfortable with," also scored well. She wore a Hawaiian print skirt, which she tore off seconds after she hopped on the bull. Soon after, she'd peel off her thong to reveal an even tinier thong.

At the end of the evening, it would be a close call. Ramon, Cordova and Felicia would win in that order.

Ramon would walk away with $200 in prize money. Cordova would win a Gilley's jacket, one of several she's using to trade in for a black cowboy hat. The rest were handed T-shirts and the opportunity to drink free for whatever remained of the evening.

Would they be returning next week?

"Oh, I'll be back here tomorrow night," Cordova said, stuffing her swimming suit into her purse.

Chances are, so would some of the spectators.

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