Do you remember years ago, before rat rods, before 95 percent of the nostalgia movement had gathered steam, before satin paint and primer, when the Cruisin' Nationals was about kustoms? If you do you would have thought you'd stepped back in time at this year's event, the 28th Cruisin' Nationals. Okay so the venue's changed, but not for the first time. There are way more cars and public in attendance, and the quality of some of the cars would have been unattainable not so long ago, but this year's show was definitely a kustom aficionado's dream weekend.
Some lessons had obviously been learned since last year's move to Santa Maria Fairpark, most notably the number of food vendors. Outside the fairgrounds it was great to see, and participate in, cruising on Broadway in front of the host hotel on Friday and Saturday nights. Though not a sanctioned block-the-main-street-to-regular-traffic cruise (that's in the planning stages for the future), there was plenty of laid-back impromptu cruising, including many local lowriders and VWs, as well as a smattering of muscle cars, making for fun evenings before and after dinner.
West Coast Kustoms did organize a countryside cruise early on Friday evening to Casmalia, while plenty of people were content to kick back at the Santa Maria Inn or on the surrounding sidewalks and motel parking lots, watching the cruisers roll by. A number of people said they'd not go to Santa Maria when the event moved there, claiming it'd be just another fairgrounds show, but to those we can only say "too bad, you missed a great show and a better time." Check out the pictures and make your own mind up. We'll be back, make no mistake!
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