Hawai'i-born rodeo legend Myron Duarte compares the appeal of professional bull riding to NASCAR, another fast-growing spectator sport that has broken away from its traditional audience base in recent years.

"People watch NASCAR not to see cars go 'round and 'round. They're looking for wrecks," said Duarte in a distinctive cowboy drawl that belies his Island roots. "Every time the gate opens (in bull riding) you get to see a wreck or a great ride."

After sitting out most of 2005 with injuries, Duarte this year hitched up with Professional Bull Riders Inc., which is holding its first Hawai'i events tonight and tomorrow on Maui and next week in Honolulu.

The 38-year-old Baldwin High graduate will compete in the Maui event named in his honor, the Cheeseburger Island Style Myron Duarte Maui Challenge, which is part of the PBR's Enterprise Rent-A-Car tour that provides up and coming bull riders a chance to earn money to qualify for the organization's elite Built Ford Tough Series.

Twenty stars from the elite series will compete in the invitation-only Cheeseburger Island Style PBR Hawaii All-Star Challenge Nov. 17 and 18 at Blaisdell Arena. Even though the regular PBR season ended last weekend with the World Finals in Las Vegas, Chief Executive Officer Randy Bernard said the bull riders are keen to compete in Hawai'i, and not only because of the location.

"There's serious prize money and it's the first inaugural all-star event. In our world there's a lot of prestige in titles, and to know you are competing in the best event in the world, it's going to have a lot of prestige," he said.

Participating in both Hawai'i events will be one of the PBR's top stars, two-time champion Chris Shivers of Jonesville, La. As a guy who makes a living strapping himself to 1,600 pounds of bucking bull for an eight-second neck-snapping, bone-jarring ride, Shivers doesn't impress easily, but he is bowled over by his first visit to the Aloha State.

"I've never seen any scenery like this. There's only thickets and briars where I live," he said. "This is the most amazing place I've ever been to."

TOUGH GUYS

PBR was formed in 1992 by 20 top bull riders who wanted to highlight their sport and break from traditional seven-event rodeos. The tour features 45 bull riders in its weekly Built Ford Tough Series, with hundreds more competing in three other tours.

PBR officials say the number of fans watching their bull-riding events on television or attending events has grown by 48 percent in the past couple of years. PBR also operates in Canada, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, home country of newly crowned 2006 PBR champion and all-time leading money-winner Adriano Moraes, who pulled out of the Nov. 17-18 event due to a back injury.

Anyone squeamish about the NASCAR aspect of bull riding might find distraction in its rock-concert atmosphere that includes loud music, pyrotechnics and continual commentary from Flint Rasmussen, who Duarte said is "the funniest man walking on the face of the Earth."

Shivers says PBR is not "a traditional rodeo."

"It's really loud, it's really wild, it's 2 1/2 hours of nonstop action," he said. "I never saw anybody who said they were bored at a bull-riding event."

Duarte, who lives in Auburn, Wash., with his wife and two sons, is expected to help fill the stands at the Maui event. Over the course of his career, Duarte has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo eight times and four times for the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, where he won the bull-riding title in 1995. Earlier this year, he surpassed $1 million in career earnings.

Duarte, whose latest injury was a broken jaw from being stepped on by a bull in August, will be joined at the Maui event by two other bull riders from Hawai'i: Dusty Miranda of Hilo and Vic Dubray, formerly of the Big Island but now living in Oregon.

BACK IN THE GAME

Miranda, 33, competed in rodeo in college and in pro events on the Mainland before returning home to work at his family's feed store. He came out of retirement a couple of years ago when bull riding began gathering steam in Hawai'i.

"It's kind of cool. I'm starting to get toward the end of my career and it's nice to get to play with those guys again," Miranda said.

For the handful of Hawai'i breeders of bucking bulls, the two PBR events are a chance to catch the eye of professional rodeo stock contractors. Fifty-eight Island-bred bulls will be used on Maui and in Honolulu. Big Island rancher Richard Kaniho, who runs South Point Buckers with partner Damien Flores, said breeding rodeo stock has become a multimillion-dollar business. Just-weaned calves can sell for $5,000 to $6,000, with top 3- and 4-year-olds fetching $200,000.

In addition to the Hawai'i bulls, 36 bulls were flown here by the PBR. A dozen of the animals were barged to Maui. The 24 bulls that will appear at the Honolulu event were shipped directly from the Las Vegas World Finals, and include top stars such as Pandora's Box, Smokeless War Dance and Walk This Way.

It's the first time the organization has transported bulls via plane, said Cody Lambert, PBR vice president and stock director. Some of the tour's bucking bulls have as big a following as the riders and have their own merchandise, such as T-shirts, trading cards, stuffed dolls and bobble-heads.

"They've all got different personalities. Some love people and some can't stand people," he said.

Bernard said he is uncertain whether Hawai'i will become an annual stop on the PBR tour.

"It's so expensive. We have to fly everything over there," he said. "We'll have to kind of wait and see what happens. I'd come back in a heartbeat."

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.