Now that the West Coast Kustoms 30th show is over and it is fresh in everyones minds. What did you think?????????? How about that friday cruise? Your likes and dis-likes. What could we do better for next year? What did you enjoy the most? Bands? How about the Swap Meet? Anything............
I can't say about the Show it's self as I Quit this show after he First one. My Suggestion would be Take it Out of the Fairgrounds & Put it back in the Park setting it used to be. Locked on the grounds so far from anything is a Bummer, Everything "BUY IT HERE" & If ya just want to come Look .... PAY AT THE GATE. PAY PAY PAY PAY... Is what its about these days Just my Opinion, But a show Closer how the Old Paso shows were would be my Suggestion.
It's a great show and we are lucky to have such a show put on by dedicated people.. Some just don't know how good they have it. I am grateful that once paso was done their was an effort to keep it alive. People need to appreciate the effort to keep this show going , I for one do.
I really enjoyed the show. I have 1 suggestion, find a way to make the awards ceremony more fun! It is very anti-climatic come Sunday afternoon when most of the the people and cars have left. Maybe even move the awards ceremony to late saturday...
My only thought on the show is that it seemed awkward that the some cars were near the gate while most of the show was in the back. Some cars in the back were almost hidden by buildings and sort of secluded. It seems to me that there was enough room to get all the cars into the back. I could be very wrong on the amount of space that there was since I didn't get to the show until around 2:00 on Saturday. Maybe there were more cars in the morning? Overall, the show was really nice. It seemed that there were many more vendors than when the show was in Paso. It was great to pic up a couple of Weesner prints and a Reppert.
First off I would like to thank you for a great show. I know it's hard pleasing everyone. We traveled in from Arizona because we don't have any shows like this, stuck with Goodguys shows. The Local Hero guys Toshi and Yudai came from Japan and I bet they enjoyed every minute like us. You local guys should appreciate and be thankful for what you got and I know the majority does. Things change and you gotta go with the flow sometimes. Here are a few suggestions from our group: 1. Make the Friday cruise route a little longer time wise and route wise. We also had some trouble finding where to enter the cruise. 2. Someone said the music lineup wasn't very good this year but I don't really listen to the bands that much so personally I can't say this for sure. 3. Maybe discounts for the event shirts for the guys bringing cars in. Thanks again for a good time.
Any bands interested for next year show needs to talk to the "BOSS" Penny. E-Mail at [email protected]
the cruise was the highlight of my weekend, great seeing some of the cars that have been featured in magazines out cruising, can't wait for next year!
I have been to all the Santa Maria shows so far. It seemed this year had far fewer participants and venders. What is your take on this ?
32gal and myself have attended every show at Santa Maria, and will return next year. Each year has goitten a little better. It seems it is now taking on its own life{Paso is done ,get over it} Extend the cruise hours, {the night-life scene is the draw for me} Also better control on entering Sat morn{we got in line , then others showed up after us and parked on a side street and got in before us. It should be first come first served and controlled !} All in all a good event!
I liked the show better at paso also but, they didn`t want us there. get over it. I would have liked the swapmeet to have been on saturday. Gary
I would like to thankyou for continuously putting on the do not miss event of the year. Whether it was in Paso or Santa Maria I will continue to come to this show for the cars & the people.
Thanks for asking for feedback. I've gone 5 times to Paso (even the Sept shows) and all SM so far. I don't think anyone would pick SM over Paso but it is what it is and this is still the BEST show I've ever gone to. It did seem less people went this year but I saw better cars this year than ever before. People just need to get there next year. The cruise and the vibe before was great. Gate 5 sucks but Chip and crew do the best getting us in quick and checking wristbands 30 minutes before helps too. Getting us in through the vendor gate and make the vendors go in through GATE 5 may give an area to stage cars in the am. This year was the best getting us in but im not sure the neighboorhood is too happy. haha Thanks again for all the improvements every year; food vendors, swap meet, cruise, etc Brian
Suggestion: For the Friday cruise put out some orange cones that mark where people should start their turn, this way they have a better idea of where to turn around, also consider limiting the cruise to certain vehicle sizes (ie the White Bus, not really a Kustom or a Hotrod, but it couldn't make that damn turn if its life depended on it). Aside from that, I had a blast! Keep up the great work!
Your concern is appreciated! 1. Make the cruise entrance from the side streets an option. At first we were not going to be let in but after some 2way radio communication it was allowed. With the window sticker it would not seem to be an issue. Was the official entry location ever announced? 2. The cruise was very slow due to lots of vehicles - as others mentioned, make the route larger. 3. For a band option - 'The Rev Tones' are HAMB'rs. 4. There is another gate just east of the entry gate - could it be used too on Sat morning? 5. Announce a more specific location for the HAMB meet and greet - this year, to my knowledge, it never happened. 6. A group of shots of HAMB member entries (vehicles) would be of interest to me (putting a HAMB member to a vehicle) - I made a request post on the HAMB but there were no posts made. 7. The vehicles in the back are out of the way. Maybe if there was some other attraction there it would help. Could the outdoor vendors be stationed in that area?
As far as GATE 5 went. There are two gates at gate 5. Only one was open as the roller rink had put their own lock on and Secyutiy had no way to open it untill 7am. That will be corrected next year. As for the late comers getting in line first, We tried to keep this to a minimum. If there was line jumping I'm sorry and we will adress that allso. The gates opened a half hour before stated times. All taken into account I think we along with the help of the Hoods car club didn't do to bad, almost 700 cars (and a bus) into the Fairgrounds in 25 minutes. We will try to address all comments to make this a better show and get together for all. Chip The Gatekeeper.
had a great time. the cruise is more like a parade. my car won't idle that slow. i just wait till the last 45 min when it thins out a little then i go out and make a few laps.my only suggestion would be to turn the cold wind off. lol
I did like the Paso layout better, but its gone and I did like the show. It was nice that there were different areas to go and to be able to go from place to place made the day much more enjoyable. Food and vendors were great and The only real comment I would have is just make sure the arrangement for getting cars in is as easy as possible. Thanks for all your hard work.
I've been going to the show for the last 15 yrs and I agree that Paso had some things that were really great and that I will miss. However I think that the show outgrew the park and Paso ,plus they didn't want us anymore. Santa Maria has opened their arms to us . I'm from Santa Maria I and I can say from experience that they have really loosened their rules on the enforcement of the motor vehicle code for the weekend. Not to say they would allow anything dangerous to go on but they have made adjustments for the weekend. It's true that it costs to park and to enter the show now for the spectator but then what is the alternative? The price for us car guys to enter the show has been keep at a reasonable rate The Pismo Beach Show is twice the cost to enter as are many car shows. In Santa Maria there is plenty of room for the show to grow and normally the weather is nicer than is was this last show. And you can't ignore the fact that the city wants the show and is willing to work with us as are the hotels and restaurants.( by us I mean people interested in the car culture, since I'm not involved in the show other than having my cars entered) My only suggestion would be to have a better explanation of what the awards are for and what the criteria is for them. I see after the fact that they are awarded for best mild custom etc but I have never known how these awards are judged or awarded. It would be nice to know how they are judged but that's just for me since I'm interested in that. I've never had a problem with any of the awards but I've also been curious about this and maybe others have as well. I think that the show was pretty nice except for the wind . I had some friends come who have never been to a car show before and they came just to support me and my cars. They stayed for 4 hours and had a great time eating funnel cakes and watching the bands and checking out the vender's . They really didn't care much about the cars except for mine but they had a blast. Anyway I think the show is going in the right direction and I had a great time. Even my wife comes to this show since they have a vendor that sells cloths that she likes and she never comes to my car shows since she relates cars to the way I smell when I come into the house after working on mine all day. What was up with the 1/2 hr. or more of dead time prior to the cruise taking off ? That was a problem since it seemed like the cops on bikes just wanted some face time cruising up and down for 30 mins until they allowed us to start the cruise. Loved the guy on the skate board with the dogs though. Also what's up with $12 dollar hamburgers? I heard this from so many people many of which left the show to eat since the cost was so high. Anyway I think the show is great and will get even better . See you next year..( sorry for being so long winded).
I had a great time at the show. I will definately go back again. The gate was a pain in the ass but what do you expect when hundreds of cars show up and triple park in a residential neighborhood? I figure just sit there and go with the flow... the only real stress was trying to keep the 6 cars we brought in together for the show. Maybe for clubs bringing a certain number of cars there can be a preferred parking area that keeps members cars with each other? I understand that could be difficult and it seemed everyone was where they needed to be. We all ended up together but thats another reason we were crashing the gate at 6am. My only other suggestion would be to open the cruise up a little further. It got pretty slow and hard on the clutch in some spots. Even so, I was one of the first on the strip and one of the last to leave. Something this size will never perfectly fit every person, that cant be helped. People should take what they can from it. I miss Paso, too. I dont think SM will ever replace Paso but it's still a great place for North and South to get together and show off what they have been doing for the last year.
I was out of town for this show but somebody mentiond a White bus was at it, I looked thru many of the threads about the show but didn't see it and am curious as to who's or what it was. Dennis Varni shows up with his at times in strange places, can some one shoot a link to it if possible. Great show, too bad about the accidents and problems that happend. Thanks
Nothing compares to Paso... its now a part of History. This was my first Santa Maria overall I thought it was a good show.. The Cruise was cool there was allot of sirens hahahaa and a guy in a pacer? that said 420 HP on the scoop that was cool. The only thing I really want to say is don't re-hire that DJ at the hotel.. I think I heard a Tone Loc song in there?? Hee was way too loud and thats coming from a guy thats been in bands since 7th grade I gotta an Ipod mix the we could just plug in a go that would rule hahaa... It can't replace Paso and we can't keep comparing the two.. We can goto Santa Maria and have a cool laid back weekend having fun with all of our friends . I'll be back next year and I hope others come and hang out..
I can answer the award questions. I have been involved with West Coast Kustoms for the last 30 years and we have always been very proud of the diversity and quality of our award winners. In past years many of our awards were picked by participant ballots. With the increased size of the show and fairgrounds this method is no longer possible.Awards are now chosen by West Coast Kustoms Reps and members,show sponsors,magazine reps, builders, and car clubs. All cars in the show are considerd for awards and the diversity of awards means every entry has a shot at an award.All we ask is that window stickers are filled out and winners be at the show on Sunday.The winners in the Wild, Mild, and Early classes also receive a bonus......they will all be featured on the beautiful West Coast Kustoms Calender! Congrats to this years winners, and Thank You to everyone for your continued input! RON
A few suggestions. I would appreciate it if WCK would provide a babysitter or day care for the weekend so me and the Mrs. could cut loose a bit. Breakfast burritos at the gate would let us know that we are appreciated too. Also, those people at the mall who give back rubs for $10 would be a nice touch. All in all we had a great time in S.M. and will be back next year. If I have anymore ideas I'll let you know. Jay
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