Cuddling on the
Wild Side

(Sorry for the lack of photos)

Last weekend I competed for the Gulf Coast Leather Sir title at the Dallas Eagle. It was a truly amazing experience, and something that has helped me grow as a person.

Leading up to the contest I met and talked with a lot of people for advice, suggestions and just general confidence boosting. No amount of preparation had prepared me for the weekend I embarked on. Everything was extremely valuable, but as with most things, experiencing it and being told about it are still two very different things.

There were a total of 4 contestants. Sir Dan was my competition for the Sir title, boy Scott was competing for the boy title, and Kristen was competing for the Community Boot Black title. As you can see, I was the only one with actual competition. The others were mostly competing to prove themselves, and they did an amazing job at it. There ended up being a total of 10 judges including all ILSb/ICBB 2010 title holders, and many local leathermen and leatherwomen from the Dallas community.

This title and the ILSb titles are more of a “players” titles. They are target at those that are truly kinky fuckers that love sex, compared to the IML title which is more of a political title.

Friday night the contestants got to the Dallas Eagle around 7:30 for a Meet and Greet with the judges. It was an opportunity to introduce yourself to the judges and let them to to know you. One of the judges, DVNC, scared the hell out of me when I first met her while there were others I immediately connected with. Over the weekend though, I’d get to know them all better and they’d get to discover that I’m more than just a 26 yr old “puppy”.

The schedule for Friday was an extremely low-stress one, but I had another reason to be stressed out. The boy that I had found online and was going to use for a couple portions of the contest on Saturday had vanished. So I used every resource I had, and any helping hand I could to find some boys. I did manage to find amazing boys for both parts.

Friday night I was also educated by Solitaire and her slave (I believe), that in Old Guard traditions, jock straps are not appropriate to wear under jeans. This was news to me, but she was more than willing to cut it off. Just an FYI, it sounds like a jockstrap would come off a lot easier than one might imagine. It’s easier to just drop your pants when you do it.

The night came and went, leaving me to twist and turn in my bed all night. I couldn’t sleep past 6:30am and got some breakfast. I spent the morning before everything started working on my speech more. Before the contest, I was the most worried about my fantasy scene and the demo portion. Once I actually got there I was the most worried about my speech.

The afternoon contained the interview and non-judged demo portions of the contest at the Dallas Eagle. All while there were different bdsm/leather workshops going on.

I was the second to be interviewed. They called me into a section of the Eagle that had been portioned off with all 10 judges seated at a table. One of my mentors had told me to shake every judges hand before and after the interview. It was also a fun game to try to remember all their names. I actually did better than I imagined. The interview was supposed to be 10 minutes, but they allowed it to go over. After about the 4th questions, all my nerves and stress just faded away for rest of the weekend. I had some big problems with history questions, such as:

• What important event happened in 1969? (Stonewall)
• When was the Leather Pride flag created? (1989 by Tony DeBlase)
• How do you prefer to play – RACK or SSC? And what do they mean? (I knew RACK [Risk Aware Consensual Kink] and what SSC was about, but didn’t know SSC meant Safe, Sane and Consensual)

Read the rest of this post »

New pic for the contest program

In just a week I’ll be in Dallas doing the interview portion of the Gulf Coast Leather Sir contest. I turned in my application earlier this week and I’m very excited to do it.

Just getting to this point has been a very interesting and enlightening experience. I’ve been introduced to so many people and many more people even sought me out through this blog, Twitter and word of mouth. I’ve heard many different perspectives and opinions on contests like this, the history of them and many other topics you might not imagine.

As I’m writing this, I actually just got done talking with a friend for a couple hours that has had some contest experience and he was graciously willing to help me out. He gave me some great perspective and things to think about. He helped me to feel a lot more confident about and prepared for what is coming ahead.

I don’t know everything that I’m getting myself into, but that’s how life works and what makes it interesting. The challenges, differences and experiences are what makes doing new things in life exciting.

Here’s the bio I wrote, with the help of boy Dave to go in the program with the picture above:

Since moving to Austin, TX from his Midwestern roots in Minnesota, Chris has been growing as a member of the leather community.  The experience has felt very natural for him, especially with a helping hand from other leathermen.

Chris enjoys learning from those around him and educating others about the leather community and lifestyle.  He especially finds it rewarding discussing the diverse experiences and perspectives every individual brings to the community.  His blog – WildCuddler.com – serves as both a means of educating and exchanging views about the leather lifestyle.

Too late to change it, but it gives a pretty good and brief perspective of who I am, and part of why I do this blog.

Well, over the next week I have to prepare all my clothes (or lack there of), the White Collar fantasy scene portion, my demo, the speech, and think about any potential interview questions/answers. It’ll be a good experience

One of my friends recently approached me and recommended that I compete in the Gulf Coast Leather Sir competition at the Dallas Eagle. I’m trying to decide if it’s the right thing for me to do.

Part of why I would want to compete is to show that there is a younger generation interested in leather/bdsm/kink, and if we are forgotten or ignored a lot of the knowledge from the older generations will be lost. Instead we need to be taken in, mentored and shown what kind of kinky world is out there. This is especially true if the older generations want to try to preserve their traditions.

As with any new generation, things will change and we will do things our own way. Like I don’t foresee it being mostly leather much longer at all. Other materials like rubber, latex, neoprene and sports gear are becoming extremely popular among the younger generations.

My belief is a big portion of the resistance in buying leather is the cost. Leather is expensive and it’s not an investment younger people are able to make. I borrowed my first harness I wore to IML, and was given some other leather pieces beforehand. Without those helping hands, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It helped to show me that my curiosity wasn’t just a fleeting interest.

Participating in the contest would be a great experience to be able to promote and encourage a younger generation of leathermen and kinksters if I won the title. I’m just trying to decide if I’m truly ready. I don’t have as much experience as the people I expect to compete against. Granted, I have no clue who they may be and I don’t think any of them have ever competed before. I think it’s something I’m going to do though. If I don’t win, at least it’s an experience I can use in the future and will hopefully give me a chance to voice my concern about my younger, lost generation of leathermen/kinksters.