California Cheap Skates Summer 2010.

What a difference sixteen years makes.

In the time since the early 1990s, CCS catalogs ballooned in size from around thirty pages all the way up to ninety pages. You sure got a lot more clothing and shoe options as the industry had grown substantially. The internet was starting to render print catalogs a moot point, but they were trying really hard.

I'm usually never one to say a given era of skateboarding was better than another and I avoid the trap that nostalgia can be. Each time period has its pluses and minuses. 1994 was not wholly better or worse than 2010 for example. They were just different. That being said, all I can say is "YIKES!" about a whole lot of the board graphics in this catalog.

The truck choices expanded with lots more colors and even signature model trucks with custom colorways. It looks like a lot of people were riding thinner boards in 2010 because trucks come mostly in two sizes: 7.75" or 8". I didn't recall boards still being smaller back then.

In terms of wheels, sizes had evened out in the low to mid 50s. Spitfire, Bones, and Ricta were dominating the selection. The plastic core trend was still there, which never made sense to me. I was riding whatever Spitfires that were 56 mm and white. Or basically the same type of wheels I've been using for the last fifteen years or so. It's odd to consider how much rapidly skateboarding changed over a few years in the early 1990s versus how I've been riding the same shape boards from the same company for three years now. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There will be something for next week. I don't really know what yet. Maybe Bueno.

The Brian Anderson photo credited to a CMRO. No idea who that is. The Muska?