Our eBay watch column for July 2006 is up. We’re going out on a limb here to allow commenting on individual eBay Watch columns since it’s actually one of our most popular features. It seems the House of Neil isn’t 100% accurate 100% of the time, and he took a bit of a beating in some of the popular collecting forums. This is an attempt to make it better, so please be cool. Check out eBay Watch: July 2006

Firefighters suspect arson in the August 16th fire that destroyed the vert ramp at Mount Trashmore – Virginia Beach. Looks like the Street Vs. Tranny battle has gotten out of hand. This long time landmark in skating has been rebuilt before. Hopefully it will rise from the ashes and the guilty party will hang from the deck. These things are usually the result of disgruntled park users who get kicked out, be they BMX riders who aren’t allowed or just troublemakers. Cold War bigwig Steve Grover is just weeks away from a vacation in Virginia Beach. Could this be his wife’s way of making sure he spends time with the family? Did someone forget to keep the damn racoons out my truck? Good news is that at least the big vert ramp came away unscathed and the park will remain open, forcing kids to learn how to drop in. Get the scoop from News Channel 3. More links and pictures after the jump.

I’m still waiting for someone to send in a pic of the Wheelieboard, so I’ll post this for now. Plastic skateboards were a dime a dozen, so you had to do something to distinguish yourself. The longrider comes to you courtesy of an eBay auction a year or so ago. Right now the only place they are showing up is on defunct Australian eBay auctions. The colorized black and white picture comes from a cool Australian skate zine called GaP, which you can download. It’s in issue one, which dates back to 2005. You can see larger pics and the auction description which is packed with a surprising amount of background info on this 1983 vintage board after the jump.

This summer has seen a bumper crop of pools in the Portland area. There must be a lot because even I know about them. The last time I rode this many pools in such a short time period was shortly before I dropped out of school. Since I can’t post the pics of the pools that are still going, you can see some highlights of my poor decision in the late 80’s.

The Slasher has a new model on the Santa Cruz Veterans Division. I guess they are going to stick with it after all. Looks like a good shape, though the graphic certainly reminds one of a certain Rick “Spidey” DeMontronde board. See them both after the jump. The press release also mentions an upcoming SantaCruz video titled V-Day “which traces the influence and contributions of Santa Cruz Vets Eric Dressen, Tom Knox, Jason Jessee to the skateboarding community.” Meek’s web page & bio is still M.I.A. from the Santa Cruz Skateboards web site.