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I preface this with I am likely wrong but I don't recall Venture making a high back then. I'm not sure how to do the @Mbrimson88 sleuthing but I'm sure he could find out. I also wonder if they were even true highs?
Venture absolutely made HI’s. For a short time in the late 90’s they had mids as well (which I had on a zoo York tiger balm graphic, I think it was a Pang).
Anyways, yeah Wade Specer, Shao, Drehobl all rode HI’s. I’m not sure how wide they were…maybe 8? Maybe it was Mbrimson88 mentioned previously that Cancer Dan quit venture because of not being able to get 8.5s…maybe it was someone else. I mean even Julien and Cardiel were riding 8s and smaller…anyways that’s how I sort of remember it
When those Think team guys (all on Venture as well) - Wade, Dan, etc - were out here in Australia roughly 1996-1998, they were all on boards that still looked like 8" or so, with trucks that matched their boards and bigger than average wheels, which looked a little funny on such skinny setups, but it worked for them. I didn't really get up close and personal with them, when they came and skated the Paddington (Brisbane City) park mid morning with almost no one else there and blew our minds, but we could see their boards well enough when they said bye. * Think Dedication 1998 video, Wade doing the back 360 grab over the box was all time, with some of us in the background who were there that day, around 1:47 in his video part.
Fast forward a few years and after another trip out here by Dan and co, one of the guys I know ended up with his board, which after going through a few other hands, the trucks ended up with me after the hanger cracked. I never saw them being skated by him, nor have any hard evidence that they were actually his, but they are the old six hole baseplate with 5.8 hangers and were near impossible for anyone else to get their hands on when those who skated them wanted more, as they were not making them in wider sizes any more, it would seem.
Add all this up and sure enough in a bit, Dan was on 149 Indy trucks, on a Krooked board, so that must have been after 2003 as the Indy trucks were stage 9 and Venture seemed like they were really only doing smaller trucks at that time.
Even Thunder wasn't doing wider sizes for a while, so when their 149ers came out, they were so highly prized and I ended up with a barely used set from another shop guy who hoarded product from back then.
Of all those trucks besides Indy, they were near impossible to find in 8.5" wide for a fair while and the set of the six hole baseplate Venture trucks I have at least look pretty much the same shape, size, height, etc as the modern 5.8 Ventures I have here, only not quite as well finished.