Rob Mertz’ answer is “never.”

The Express-Times has short interview with old Zorlac pro and current Syndrome Distribution honcho Rob Mertz. The article, titled “Skateboard to top not pipe dream” is a short fluff piece, but it does contain an amusing fact – the town mayor was the one who encouraged him to follow his dream of being a pro skateboarder. If like me, you’re still skating as grown man with a family of your own, you can probably relate to hearing this kind of thing from your extended family, and in this case, from Rob’s mom:

All the years, miles and bruises later, Nancy Mertz still worries. “He skates every day on his lunch hour. You know he’s 41?” she sighed. “This is why they have hair dye; I turned gray early.”

More Mertz links after the jump.

Rob Mertz related links:

Rob Mertz’ own web site – Mertzworld. A lot of good, mostly older content here.

Here’s an old (2000) link to a Transworld Business article about Syndrome. Mertz talks about killing off the Zorlac name because the old brand didn’t appeal to kids. It was being used to market a line of blanks designed to compete with Powell’s mini logos. Ironically, they replaced Zorlac with a full graphic line called Status. Is that brand even around anymore?

Zorlac has been reborn. Does anyone care to take bets on a Rob Mertz reissue?

Piratical Skates is where the picture of the deck came from. A lot of ditches and pools in this site.

And finally, Rob Mertz deck appearances in eBay Watch.