I read that George was put into some sort of bondage harness and "gang-snuggled". The police report states that it can leave permanent emotional and physically scarring...
There were positives.... They had 3 bands on Sat and 2 on Sunday, lot's of riff raff not included due to the pay entry, the city folk came out in force on friday night near the downtown hotels to check out the cars, the police were helpfull not bothersome, every parking lot near the host hotel was packed full of cars and none of the business owners complained about it... I think the positives outweighed the negatives.. Jason
Here's a photo taken by the local newspaper photographer of a couple of the "Snuggle-Chicks". The one on the left has a "duel purpose face", whatever that is. He didn't explain.
I just blasted up there Saturday in my pickup. Had a great time. Sure, there were not enough food vendors but that just made me enjoy my steak dinner at Shaw's all the more. I'll go again.
That's interesting....The fine print on the box says "may cause dangerous"....Anybody else see a connection???
The more time i have thought about it, the more I am willing to attribute what i disliked to it being a first year thing. I will be back next year and then decide on future shows from there. I will also be prepared with my own food and drink next time.
I knew SM was going to have a hard time meeting half the experience of Paso. But Paso didn't happen overnight either. I don't think we were prepared (or anyone else) for the turnout. We've hosted car events for years but never on the scale of this weekend. Its a learning curve and I hope a short one. SM appreciates and thanks everyone who participated. The rides were unbelievable. This thread (or any other on the show) will be sent to the SM fairgrounds for input on next years show. Its gonna get better!
Great comments, everyone. As someone who has registered and driven an old car to Paso for the past 13 years in a row, I can say that I really, really missed the ol' girl this year. The beauty of Paso was parking your car and walking to breakfast, or back to your hotel. Or having your wife go shopping, or the movie theater while you were at the show-- It was a family car event everyone could enjoy as a vacation. One strip had everything. The bowling, the drive in, and every hotel was on one, short strip. OK, I just had to get that out. Now, Santa Maria was ok, but it was indeed a fairgrounds show, 265 miles from home. The SM Inn helped make it worth it, but WCK took most of the rooms for next year, and I already heard the desk clerks mention the infamous "3 night minimum" to a few guests. If I was staying at the hotel by freeway, 5 miles away, I would be bummed next year. The fairground its self was ok, and the size allowed the show to add 200 more cars-- But some of the stuff they were letting in was horrible. 70s El Camino, stock 66 Ford Galaxie, Dubs, Billet mobiles, you name it. I feel like WCK has to have a better car filter to compensate for the mundane location. Next Memorial Day weekend? I'm not sure its worth the effort and expense for the show-- I'm just not sure yet. I'd rather have half as many cars that totally "get it" with no mouth-breathing spectators is some other smaller, cool town on the central coast- Who's in?
By the way, the SNUGGLERS were crazy- Bullhorns, pepper spray and mini-tasers. At least they had Fonzie on their shirts, just like the 50's BRO.
Quote: <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Bad Bob Primer Nats! $25 to drive in,good for both days! Bands,no long food lines,better atmosphere,BBQ at KiwiKevs(sat. after the show),Bands at the Bowling Alley(sat.night),Fun small town,BBQ at Dan Collins shop on sunday. Best weekend on the west coast! </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Amen to that!!!
Well..........have to agree with most of the comments. The show had some really nice cars and trucks to look at. The town did seem to welcome the people from the show. The town is just not the same smaller town feel of Paso. The SM police were out in force on the main drag Broadway. I saw mostly locals being pulled over, not show participants. I had FOUR motorcycle cops behind me after I left the Dice magazine party, stopped by to see the motocycles out front. I was shitting bricks, but they eventually turned off after tailing me for about 4 blocks. My COE could have racked up quite a stack of fix-it ticket violations if a cop wants to be a real dickhead, fortunately SM police were not that I could determine. I did not see any real stupid driving stuff by any of the participants, that was good. The hotels at this point were not raping the show participants like Paso did. Will I go back next year? That is a good question, it is 1 hour further south than Paso for us norcal folks. It is more of a fairgrounds show. It is still a great show to see friends and make the drive down. That is the point isn't it? To drive your car, see friends and hang out with great cars and trucks all around?
I'm sure the show will go on and be successful from both a financial outlook for the promoters and a good time for participants, but I think we have lost something that was more than just a show.. kind of like when Oakland was in tents in the colesium parking lot and the other crappy venues before moving away for good. the end of an era.[/quote] ~ Well said" The tents in the Lot was the end of that"
Yo jay~ You know I'm with you..." ALL THINGS MUST PAST" and it's up to all of us to help a little town that has it all. I git the rear leaf brackets welded in today, removed the black fender welt, Got the hightrunk lid side down...had a good day and thought about all my buddies 4 hrs. away...
I had no expectations going into Santa Maria. I knew it wasn't going to be Paso and was open to what SM had to offer. Still, even though I felt the weekend was fun, I left the show not feeling quite right, like something was missing. My wife kept asking me what was wrong and I didn't really have an answer and until reading all of these posts couldn't quite put my finger on it. I think it was the fact that last year we drove 5 hours up the coast to ultimately arrive at a scene that could have existed 50 years ago, whereas this year we drove an hour less up the coast to a place that exists 10 minutes from my house. The drive was still beautiful, the Inn was cool, our dinner at Shaws was fantastic, and for the most part the cars were awesome, but the downtown park and old school small town atmosphere in Paso left a bigger hole than I thought it would. Like I said in my previous post, SM will never be Paso, but good people as a whole can make up quite a bit where "atmosphere" is concerned. I hope those that view these posts make the right decisions and that the event improves on every level in future years. I think for round 1 SM did a pretty "not bad" job. As others have said - more food, more vendors, more bands (would be cool to see one band right after another on Sat and Sun so once all the cars have been seen one could just kick back in the stands for the rest of the time). I would love to see a bike area or building as well, it would definitely add another dimension to the show. It might behoove those involved in the decision making to possibly look at what Paso didn't have to make up for some of the things we now miss. I'll continue going, I just hope SM figures out a way to make it's mark and separate itself from becoming just another "car show".
Paso Maria was fine by me. I hung out with my buddies. We have fun anywhere. I think if you had a shitty time, it was your own doing. A car show is just a car show. Having fun with your friends is what makes a fun experience.
Best Mild Kustom and the KKOA pick. I'm still pretty fucking amazed. That said, I still don't get why people care so much about winning awards.
I don't see people saying they had a shitty time... and as far as a "car show being a car show"... that thinking falls deep into the plastic fairgrounds portable crapper when a show becomes "Paso". very few people have any idea what "West Coast Kustoms Cruisin Nationals" is, but let me tell you.. people around the world know (knew) what Paso was. if you are doing something that is known worldwide by a name that has nothing to do with the actual name of the show you have something special. ... don't make me bring up Oakland again. I've been to at least 10 Paso's in a row, I'd have to check my photo albums to be more precise. this show was a good show. was it worth a 3.5 hour one way drive? if this was not "the show formerly known as Paso" I would say no, but since it is, I'll go back next year and give it another try. I got there early and parked in the street for free. walked right in the gate and didn't even know there was a ticket booth because no one was in line. brought my own food and ate lunch in my car... so none of those problems existed for me. interesting comments here. I'm suprised that so many So Cal people said they wouldn't go back. I sure hope this changes by next year.
here's a link to the local Santa Maria news paper... http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2008/05/25/news/featurednews/news01.txt and a write up from the same news paper but a day earlier... http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2008/05/23/news/centralcoast/news04.txt they also interviewed BLACKIE you can watch the clip on the newspaper homepage.
I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and take away all the negative things I ever said about Santa Maria... But I will still say the highlight of the weekend was seeing guys I know and shooting the shit... Don, Dave, Ricky, Mark, Ted, Fabian, Tom, Keven, Rick, Matt, Keith, Donnie, Rick, Terry, Terry, Rob, Pat, Pat, Brian... and more... made it FUN. It's not about the cars, it's about the people. Sam.
The more I think about it, the more I feel for the people of Paso who wanted the show moved. People peeing in your yard, littering everywhere, cursing everywhere like somehow that will bring them from lame to cool.. Over just the last couple of years things had noticeably changed. No, it was not the lowriders, the lowriders never caused any problems I saw. It was these annoying 20 to 30 something or even older kids acting like bad teenagers that really need to be spanked in public. Maybe with the late be annoying as possible pop culture, which seems almost like some sort of I like Britney Spears fad, people didn't really notice how they act in public anymore. How can you blame a town for not wanting to deal with it. It is too bad the cops didn't just stomp the annoying people, then we would still have Paso. Yeah I said it, why hasn't anyone else? I will support the Santa Maria show, but hope the show can return to Paso. Maybe I will just get some friends together and take the nice cruise up there, hang out on the upper porch of the Inn, and watch the world go by. I did have a lot of fun bowling with a bunch of friends and BBQ with Mercury Charlie.
49, I miss Paso, Santa Maria is a nice place and the show will get better with time. I enjoyed the show very much and will support it and work to make it a great show. There were lots of nice cars 956 I think was the overall count. It was easier to walk around and view the cars, easy entry to the grounds and easy to exit. There were no problems at the show or on the streets of Santa Maria, the police and the town people did a good job of welcoming the show and car guys of the WCK's. Be cool and support the show in '09. CRUISER
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