In the second half of the 80’s I bought a barely used set of Pro Designed knee pads from local Champaign-Urbana skater Martin Pelequin. “The Mertster” as he liked to call himself, was a colorful character to say the least, almost a miniature version of Steven Tyler in appearance and behavior. Skinny, and around five foot tall and some change, he definitely overbought these double capped kneepads that he had custom made with blue denim and leopard skin lycra. They looked and felt like hockey goalie kneepads on him, so he sold them to me. I rode these kneepads until the early 90’s when I loaned them to a friend in Chicago, ironically to play outdoor hockey. He accidentally left one behind and so I never had a full set again. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the remaining one. One of my cats peed on it at some point this millennia, and I’m still having a hard time sending it to a landfill. The cat has long since run away. I’ve got a couple pics of the Mertster after the jump.

Day 5 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no particular reason.) Yes, there are lots of obvious things I could have covered (Skatopia, Rob Dyrdek’s Kettering Skate Plaza, Devo…) but you know about those already. Instead, here’s a bunch of random, unrelated Ohio items. – Thanks to Zack, Dan, and Clint for the tips.

Day 4 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no particular reason.) Public Square Group is part skateboard/skatepark advocacy, part community outreach, and part skateboarding support group. They are named after the Cleveland’s public plaza, a not-built-for-skateboarding spot that has a history in the scene dating back to the 80’s. They also run the Skate Kitchen, which until this year had been in an actual physical location with an indoor miniramp. The non-profit membership based model (with public hours) seems to have been replaced with pop up skate events while they look for a new space. Grindline recently finished Cleveland’s Crooked River Skatepark on the riverfront. Opening day was snowed in, Meanwhile, Broadway Skatepark in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland has already gone through early design presentations. Public Square Group is acting as the conduit for feedback. – Thanks to Dan Overfield for the tip. [Video Still: Share the River]

This is day 3 of 5 Days of Ohio posts – for no particular reason. This came in from reader Jeff Haynes: When I think of Ohio, I think of G.S.D., Donnie Humes and Smelly Curb Zine, the Dayton Visitor’s center, and most recently Fickle Skateboards. What makes this Cincinnati skate “company” different is that Lew Ross is known to drive to Canada to pick up veneers, presses his boards in his workshop, and does all production work d.i.y. from pressing to printing to shipping. It looks like Fickle has been around since 2009. Even while early boards were made by Pennswood, the DIY spirit was still going in those early trucker hats that look like the logo was spray painted on with a stencil. Fast forward to today, and Everything is done in-house, even the pressing and screen printing of the boards. Still need suggestions for 5 Days of Ohio.

On day 2 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no real reason) we have various, assorted histories of Alien Workshop, from Transworld Skatebaording, Realm 3, Quartersnacks via Will Staley, and Jenkem (Musical history). If you’ve got any good Alien Workshop links, leave them in the comments. Send your tips for 5 Days of Ohio.

I’m starting a week of Ohio-centric posts, one a day. There is absolutely no reason for this. I have a few lined up, but I could use some Ohio tips if you’ve got ’em. First up is Condensed Flesh, which is a video zine specializing in, but not limited to documenting the Cleveland, Ohio Skate/Art/Music/DIY scene. Episodes 5, 6 and 7 document the progression of the Funwall DIY park in Cleveland as seen in Stuck in Ohio. Condensed Flesh may be Ohio based, but episode 6 travels all the way to Bolivia!

Stuck In Ohio, brings you The Definition of Ohio Skateboarding. It’s a skateboard specific part of a larger project. There are two things I like about this video; the attitude and the wealth of cool looking spots. Remember Surf Ohio! Also, We are all Devo.

Remember 50 on 50? 40 Year Old Janitor does 40 Mini-Ramp Tricks at Jolly Roger Skateboards. I just reached the big 4-0 so I figured I would see what 40 tricks I could pull off on our mini-ramp last night. Warning: there are no McTwists or flip tricks in this video. I am really not much of a Birthday person but if you want to give me a gift come by and buy yourself something nice from the shop. – Thanks to Tim Jamison for the tip.

A skateboarding cop from Green Bay, Wisconsin who bought a board that was hand manufactured in Portland, Oregon by Subsonic Skateboards. Allegedly the board helps him connect with the community. Sure, OK, but the red and blue flashing LED lights he added are pretty silly on a skateboard, considering he’s supposed to be a man of the law and not a cartoon character. The little kids probably like it though. There’s video on The FOX News Orlando affiliate but they forgot to mix the sound in. Strange.