Venture innovated
What’s wit these companies that start with “V?” After posting about the first ever symmetrical board that was made by Vision, I came across this post on Vert is Dead about the evolution of the new truck hole pattern. Ocean Howell may have been the first guy to drill his own baseplates, and Venture was apparently the first truck company to offer it as a stock option. I guess everyone else just copied them. Does anyone know who the first board company was to offer the new, smaller mounting pattern? One thing I’d like to know is how did the industry standardize on the first pattern? If you’ve never seen some old trucks from the early 70’s, they all had their own mounting patterns. Boards came undrilled, and you could buy special guide to help drill them straight. Was there some sort of round table meeting with the big truck companies, or did the board manufacturers drive that decision. Were there arguments and hold outs? Some of the plastic boards had multiple mounting holes molded into them, as if they wanted to be be able to mount trucks from different manufacturers in case a supplier had problems.
In the late 80’s I made a half assed attempt at starting a skate shop. Quarter-assed is more like it, but one of the things I ended up with was a healthy supply of brand new trucks. You can imagine my confusion at one point in the 90’s when I bought a new deck and tried to mount it up with some NOS Thunders. For a while there I was drilling decks to accommodate the old trucks, but I got sick of having slightly crooked setups. Then I went to buy new Thunders, and they were like a completely different company, everything was low and narrow… no more lizards and skulls on the baseplates, so I went back to Indy. The whole thing was very traumatic. Scarred me for life, actually.
This is a close up of a Venture advert from the November 1992 issue of Thrasher. It features Venture rider Jeff Chamley. You can see the whole Venture advert with the backstory on Vert is Dead.
On my current set up I have some early ’90’s Thunders with the six hole pattern. I think I bought them around 93 or 94. I took about a seven year hiatus right after buying them so they still look new and fit just fine on modern decks.
When I was a kid I had the Thunders with the lizard on the baseplate. I was a husky kid and Thunders were the only truck I never broke. I had broken Gullwing, Trackers, Ventures, and even Indy’s. Boy, that brings back memories.
i made a cut-out when i was 10. i just eyed the holes and drilled. man that board turned right really well. but, you couldn’t really turn left on it.
I had some Thunders from May 1992 to whenever I got my set of Ventures with the 6 hole pattern, which was probably late 1992 or early 1993. I think the Thunders were called T4s. They were lighter and lower, but still had the old mounting pattern for bolts. It would be a safe bet that the next version of Thunders had 6 holes.
it was less of offering a new smaller pattern and more about the noses being double drilled so you could choose your nose size. when noses got bigger along came nose slides which fucked up mounting hardware royally, well, I , as many others thought, there is this extra set of holes 1/2″ back, why not mount the front bolts on my front truck through them and no more mounting hardware damage. soon the companies caught on, kinda like all skate shoes used to be high tops until 91-92′, at that time it was common to buy a new pair of high tops and cut them off to ankle height, the industry took notice and soon it was virtually impossible to find a pair of made for skating , high-tops..
In 92′ ridiculous large pants were cool, 10 years later just the opposite.same with wheel size.
who had a good enough sense of irony to see that comming?
I never cared about the mounting hardware getting jacked up, it didn’t effect tail slides. It does make sense to move them though – unless you are part of the mounting hardware lobby.
Ah, the ‘New Deal’ skateboards trend of Ventures and Big 40 inch waist pants—-I did it- I’m ashamed, but I wore G&S Flannel Pants with a Vision Street Wear Fanny Pack too! Any body remember the BBC? (Bad Boy Club? Or Limpies?)
I had some G&S pants too. They were regular cut, but they were bright colors.
Jimmy-Z
Oh JimmyZ- that was Dave Duncan’s clothing sponsor for years. Brings up the OG Stussy- not the modern version- what about Skate Rags!
I had some sweet black and grey plaid Skate Rags pants and a crap load of Jimmy Zed shorts.
For years I had an old Mark Gonzales Vision ad for double hole pattern that I took with me from house to house before it finally ripped. It had one photo of him doing a pop shuvit and another of him going an invert.
What a great time for fashion. i cant wait til it comes back. i got a oversized chain wallet around here somewhere…
You all forgot about the mambosok… So rad
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19910904&slug=1303624
why wait, I am sporting some vision street wear slip ons with an argyle print accented with winged skulls from 88-89 that I grabbed off e-bay, they were 20$ and NIB…