NORTH COUNTY CRUISE NIGHT

North County

Cruise Night WORDS: AARON SCHMIDT PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER

North County Cruise Night

This past June 5th, local car clubs and others from places like LA, Indio, and San Diego descended upon Oceanside for another installment of North County Cruise Night. What started out as a simple cruise night between local car clubs has turned into something a lot more meaningful.

Event organizer and president of Members Only car club Robert Morales is the glue that binds the event together, where it’s estimated that around 5,000 people came out to enjoy over 500 beautiful cars on display that Saturday. “As far as cruises go for us in North County, we’d usually go down to San Diego for a cruise or they’d have the big cruises up in LA. We were brainstorming and were like, ‘We’ve got enough car clubs here in North County, why don’t we start doing our own cruises?’ which was the initial idea. From there, I got a hold of all the car clubs in North County, which is probably over twenty. Car clubs like North County Classics, Fuerte, Visions Car Club, Low For Show, Viejitos, Por Siempre, Brook Life, and Associated, just to name a few,” said Robert. “There were a few car clubs from LA, Indio, San Diego, and even a couple clubs came down all the way from San Francisco.ˮ

The first cruise night event happened on Halloween and it was located off Oceanside Boulevard during COVID. With the amount of cars that showed up, people actually had a really hard time getting out of there. It took about a half hour for cars to head down to Coast Highway. After that, Robert and his crew decided to just meet down on the coast and cruise. “The one that really set it off is the one we did on Halloween. That was our first event and it set the bar kind of high. This last one that we just did was even higher,” said Robert. “As each car show goes on, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. To be honest, we never thought it’d get to the magnitude that it did.”

The Saturday June 5th cruise was indeed another success without any major issues, but on the following Monday after the event, Robert got a call from the Oceanside Police Department: “Initially, we didn’t have any problems that night. Their biggest concern was the amount of cars and stopping traffic on Coast Highway. We don’t do this to cause trouble, we do this for the community—to get everybody out there and have a good time. It’s definitely bringing the community together. Other than that, I’ve gotten a really good response from a lot of storeowners there. I have a meeting in the community once a month with all the storeowners from Oceanside Boulevard all the way down to where the 101 Café is,” explained Robert. “They’re all on board—they want this to happen. I know a lot of the restaurants there sold out and closed early because they were out of product.”

The North County Cruise Night has indeed garnered tons of support from established local businesses like Sonora Refillery and Flowers by Azalea, among others. “They had done a cruise and Marissa Figueroa (owner of Sonora Refillery) and I went and talked to them. We were like, “How can we get them to come back because this is really fun for this area. Nothing really goes on between Oceanside Boulevard and Wisconsin Avenue. It’s an area that’s kind of forgotten,” said Azalea Perez, owner of Flowers by Azalea. “The cruise night is such a great way to bring more of the community out to see the cars and patron the restaurants. It’s just a good way to get people into our area because there’re a lot of new businesses here that they don’t know about.”

“It’s really happened organically, the way that it’s played out—the hot rod guys coming out, Camp Pendleton bike clubs were coming out, there were racecar clubs that were coming out, and everyone was cool. People came together to share the love of the cars and the love of the whole culture,” said Azalea. “It’s been a really great show of community support. I think the cruise has potential to become a permanent event presence in our area. It’s not just about lowriders—this is a family event. They want people to bring their kids out because they bring their kids out. They want this to be for everyone.”

“As each car show goes on, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. To be honest, we never thought it’d get to the magnitude that it did”

North County Cruise Night

When it comes to the next North County Cruise Night, Morales has his sights set on August. “We put in permits to the city to do the event, and they got pushed back to the end of July. We had a meeting with all the car clubs and we were like, “We did this during COVID, why can’t we just go on and do it again?” So for this past June event, we basically ran with it and we tried to patrol as much as we could, but OPD called me and said we needed to have permits,” explained Robert. “The police presence was very light there that night. They want to work with us, so they suggested we go to the city and apply. That’s why we canceled the July cruise. We’ve got the paperwork in motion for our permits for the August 7th event.”

As far as the car clubs go, they used to get a really bad wrap back in the day. There’s been a really negative stereotype about car clubs and gangs, but a lot of things have changed since the 90s. It’s just simply not like that anymore. “Everywhere I go, I take my family with me—we all pile up and take the car,” said Robert. “The cruises are more of a family thing now.”

WORDS: KATIE LALICATA PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER

They say a building is only as strong as its foundation and a community only as strong as it’s people. Well, with the caliber of people like Vee and Ally Vandereb manning the helm of community involvement, Oceanside’s looking mighty fine.

The Vandereb’s are creating the kind of foundational footholds that give a community a healthy, loving, and vibrant pulse. Life long Oceanside residents, high school sweethearts, parents, and now hosts of the Thursday night roller-skate gatherings at MLK Park—these simple adjectives hardly do justice to the depth of character and quality of service that these two represent. Indeed it’s their meet-ups that attract people to MLK Park on Thursday, but it’s their warm, generous, communityoriented, kind-hearted, and family minded spirit that keeps people coming back week after week. By no doing of their own, aside from being themselves, people have then, in turn, spread the word and momentum of this roller-skating tribe continues to blossom in exponential increments.

Starting with a need during COVID times, Ally and Vee had a simple idea. They wanted to find an affordable way to get outside, get active, and spend time with their family. So, they bought some skates, rounded up some Facebook friends from an existing private message group, and now they sit in awe—as one little planted seed has reaped a whole garden of flourishing friendships. These skating meet ups have established many enduring meaningful connections within the Oceanside community and beyond.

Since then, they’ve created an Instagram account @oceanside_rollerskating to help keep people up-to-date on all the details of these gatherings. “For me, the most beautiful thing has been that we’re not standing on the sidelines anymore, we’re in the game with families. When people get here, they’re disconnecting from technology and connecting with others. And people miss that,” shared Vee with heartfelt tears of humble happiness. The positive energy exchange on these Thursday summer evenings has a lovely palpable warmth. “We just want to make sure families are spending time together. We’re bringing that back.”

The community continues to prove it’s valor to provide everything needed to make sure these summer night play dates are as epic as possible. DJs have come out to volunteer their time to stoke out skaters with proper jams to skate, float, and dance to. Community members volunteer their time rocking referee jerseys to make sure people’s safety is looked after in the rink, and photographers offer their skill to create promotional content. From there,

Roller-skate Night founders Vee and Ally Vandereb. Vee and Ally have taken it to the next level—not just with their time, but have also invested in solar lights, so the skating can last well into the dark. Skating a la Luna, alludes to the perfect SoCal summer dreaming. Some good clean fun is being cultivated here; nostalgia at its finest.

These gatherings are all ages, races, sexes, and skill level—an authentic offering from their hearts—and are truly the kinds of community functions that make Oceanside the most real and diverse costal town in North County. But if all that is seen as chivalrous fun, then the whole point is being missed. In addition, and equally important to the roller parties, are their regular volunteerbased Friday morning community park cleanups. “It’s not always about entertainment, it’s also about taking care of what’s around us,” explained Vee.

And with this intention, the webs being woven in this community hold stronger than ever. Using this opportunity to teach their kids the importance of volunteering and taking care of others and their environment around them is profoundly impactful—to say the least. Without a doubt, the Vandereb’s are imprinting an essence of love and community on anyone close enough to feel their sunshine.

Roller-skate Night at MLK was previously held on Thursday nights, but is now

every Friday 4-9pm

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Music At The Museum

ART WALK SERIES

Explore the exhibitions starting at 5:00pm and stay for the concert until 9:00pm. The music starts and cash bar opens at 6:30pm. Admission is free with beer and wine available for purchase as well as a limited number of reserved premium tables for $50.

July 2: The Shane Hall Trio August 6: Whitney Shay

Capacity may be limited, so reserve your spot now! Visit www.oma-online.org/music or call (760) 435-3721 for the lineup and to reserve free tickets or to book VIP tables.

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