Stories you might have missed from around Wisconsin.
Washburn: Surfing pioneer from Wisconsin will be inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame
When you think of surfing, you might not think of Wisconsin. One of the pioneers of the sport grew up in Washburn and is about to receive national recognition. Tom Blake transformed the sport of surfing in the 1920s and 1930s with innovative board designs and improvements. Now Blake, who was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Washburn, will be posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May. According to his profile on the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Blake is being honored because he “helped make surfing more accessible and more popular” and “influenced the future of board design.” Blake created lighter, hollow boards and added fins to them, enabling surfers to better ride waves and maneuver their boards. He also invented waterproof camera rigs that could attach to boards and capture the essence of the sport. When the 1918 flu pandemic closed the Washburn school he attended, Blake started wandering the country. In 1920, he was in Detroit where he met surfer and gold-medal winning Olympic swimmer and Hawaiian native Duke Kahanamoku, who is known as the “father of surfing.” In 1926, Blake began to modify traditional solid wood surfboards. When Blake added fins to his revolutionary surfboard designs, he found they produced greater stability and higher performance for surfers, ushering in a new surfing era. Blake died in Ashland in 1994. He was 92 years old. Full Story
Green Bay: Green Bay area craft brewers to brew a beer for the NFL Draft.
Football and beer go together like, well, Wisconsin and beer. Green Bay’s craft breweries will have a frosty cold one ready when visitors arrive to celebrate the NFL draft in April. Nine of the region’s craft brewers, from small taprooms to brewers with statewide distribution, teamed up last week to brew up a batch of 8th Round Downtown Pale Ale, a special collaboration beer that will serve as the official craft beer of Draft City Music Fest. The brewers even got a little help mixing up the pale ale from Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich. Genrich told the Journal Sentinel, “This is really exciting from our community’s perspective. I love a ton about the city of Green Bay but right up there at the top is the craft brewing culture we have in the community. We’re not going to get a bigger opportunity to share what’s best about Green Bay.” Badger State Brewing is hosting the collaboration beer. The pale ale style should produce an easy-drinking, refreshing beer that anyone can enjoy whether they’re craft beer fans or not. The beer won’t be available until the week of the NFL draft in late April. Full Story
Slinger: Slinger Speedway being sold. What’s next for the popular stock car track?
After watching Days of Thunder, we all know that in the stock car racing world, “rubbin’ is racin'”. Todd Thelen planned on continuing to run the Slinger Speedway, figuring he’d have to wait for a new buyer to come along. Here’s the rub in this racing story, a buyer came along quicker than expected. In an effort to head off rumors of the track’s demise, Thelen and his wife, Elizabeth, announced last week via social media that plans for a sale to a local buyer are already in the works. Thelen told the Journal Sentinel, “The business has never been better. The staff has never been better. One thing leads to the next. There’s always tire kickers. And it got serious. For Thelen, an important part of that legacy was keeping the racetrack, where he came to love the sport, open as a racetrack. Indications are car counts in the premier super late model class and late model classes will both be up this season. Full Story
