YORKTON - When PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Australia and Canada announced the athletes who will compete in the other nation’s year-end finals event this November as part of their continued transcontinental partnership to foster more competitive opportunities for the organization’s athletes two Saskatchewan riders were chosen to head down under.
Weston Davidson of Strongfield, Sask., and Chanse Switzer of Hazenmore, Sask. will ride at the PBR Australia Grand Finals Nov. 1-2 in Townsville, Queensland.
“I’m pretty excited,” said Davidson in a recent interview with Yorkton This Week. “. . . When I got the call I was pretty excited.”
Davidson said he knew he had a chance given his position in the top 10, and when a higher rider opted out, he said he was quick to say yes.
“Hopefully I can get something done down there,” he said.
Davidson and Switzer will travel to Australia for the first time ranked firmly inside the Top 10 in the race for the 2024 PBR Canada Championship. Davidson leads the duo, presently ranked No. 3, followed closely by No. 7 Switzer.
Thus far in 2024, Davidson’s season has been headlined by his career first Cup Series victory in Brandon, Manitoba, in late May. On home soil, he has logged an additional eight Top 10 finishes. His campaign also included a brief stint stateside, where he rode to three Top 20 efforts, led by a third-place finish in January on the Velocity Tour in Charleston, West Virginia.
Chasing his first PBR Canada Championship this season, Davidson, who has locked up his second career qualification to the PBR Canada National Finals, currently trails the top-ranked rider by 607 points.
“It’s been going good so far (this season), some ups and downs, but that’s bull riding,” offered Davidson.
The key is staying on as even a keel as possible, and Davidson said that comes with a good mind set.
“It’s believing in yourself. You’ve got to get that self-belief,” he said.
Of course Davidson knows the sport rather well, his father being a rider and an uncle a bull fighter.
“I kind of grew up in it,” he said.
Like many Saskatchewan youth, Davidson was a hockey player.
“As a kid I kind of always wanted to go to the NHL,” he said.
Then one day realized he could go to a rodeo, get on a bull and potentially make some money. He switched sports at that point.
“I wouldn’t change a thing for the world,” he said upon reflection. “. . . Once you get bull riding in your blood you can’t really get it out. The adrenaline rush, you can’t really explain it.”
The 2024 PBR Australia Monster Energy Tour Grand Finals will be held in Townsville, Queensland at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre Nov. 1-2, with competition getting underway nightly at 7:30 p.m. AEST. The Australian Grand Finals will award more than $205,000 AUD in prize money, including a $75,000 AUD bonus to the 2024 PBR Australian Champion.
During the 2024 PBR Australia Grand Finals, each rider will get on two bulls per night in Rounds 1-2 on Friday, November 1, and one bull in Round 3 on Saturday, November 2. Following Round 3 on Saturday evening, the Top 15 riders will then advance to the championship round.
The rider with the highest aggregate score throughout four rounds will win the PBR Australia Grand Finals event title.
So, how will Davidson prepare for the unknown of a pen of Australian bovine?
Well to start he said he knows riders who have headed to Australia before, and Australian riders competing in Canada, so there are riders to talk too.
In the current era there are usually videos on most bulls too.
“So you can get a baseline idea,” said Davidson, adding you can’t always trust what you see though. “They (bulls) have a mind of their own.” That means they might do something 50 times out, and then change that pattern in ride 51. “. . . You see a video of a bull, you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt.”
Australians Boston Leather of Calliope, Queensland, and Ben Bode also from Calliope, Queensland) will ride at the PBR Canada National Finals on Nov. 8-9 in Edmonton, Alta.
