Slappy 2026 — how the trick everyone snubbed is dominating Instagram

Tony Hawk and Mark Gonzales just dropped a slappy on Instagram, and the video blew up. Heroin Skateboards doubled its « old guy » board catalog. EA is sliding the slappy in as a new trick in the next Skate. The most low-tech trick in skateboarding just ate up the top spot. Here’s the breakdown.

⏱ Reading time: 5 min

Origins: 1991, the trick of the forgotten

Before the era of the switch heelflip and the tre flip, there was the slappy. Mark Gonzales, John Cardiel, and Salman Agah were already doing them in San Francisco in the early 90s, on the ledges of Wallenberg, on the curbs of EMB. The principle is simple, almost dumb: you roll parallel to the curb, you slam your truck against the edge, the sidewalk carries you. No ollie, no pop, just timing and a slightly crazy approach.

For twenty years, the slappy was the trick nobody put in their part. Too simple, too « neighborhood skater, » not enough pop for contests. Thrasher sections left it to veterans, Daewon Song preferred manuals, SLS praised Nyjah. The trick slept in the folds of skateboarding, kept alive by a handful of die-hards: Ronnie Creager, Steve Olson, the Heroin Skateboards crew. A niche for old guys, they said.

Why 2026 — the viral mechanics

Three forces converged in eighteen months. The first: Tony Hawk publishes a slappy tutorial video with Mark Gonzales in the streets of New York in October 2024. The sequence surpassed twenty million views on Instagram in one week. The clip resurfaces every two months on the algorithm — it’s still alive.

The second: the « old guy skateboarding » wave. The Heroin Skateboards account saw its community double in a year. Ace Pelka, Ronnie Creager, Andrew Allen — in their thirties, forties — are stacking slappy clips on neighborhood curbs. No plaza, no big gap. Just a sidewalk, a pair of Independent trucks, and some wax. Millions of views with every post.

The third: EA Skate. The franchise reboot announced the slappy as one of the game’s three new signature tricks. Developers are calling it a « game-changer. » When a Californian studio values a trick enough to make it a launch argument, it means mainstream culture has already digested it.

The end of the high ollie dictatorship

For thirty years, skateboarding lived under an unwritten rule: if you don’t land an ollie over the curb, you’re doing nothing. The bar rose, plaza ledges went up to a meter, and an entire generation of beginners — as well as forty-somethings getting back into it — found themselves stuck in the learning curve. The slappy bypasses this dictatorship. You don’t jump. You slide against the edge, you charge, you exit.

The result is political in the most literal sense. The slappy gives street access back to those whom technical evolution had ejected: teens discovering skateboarding, 90s skaters returning at 45, girls getting kicked out of the park by aggressive riders. Curb-Cover, Slappy Skate Co, Slappy’s Garage: three micro-brands born in 2024-2025 on this philosophy. No gatekeeping. A sidewalk curb and you exist.

That’s exactly what Eric Koston said recently: « The skateboarding that lasts is the one you can do at 50 in front of your garage. » The slappy checks that box. No need for an Olympic plaza. No need for a monster body.

Your slappy 2026 setup — bare minimum

No need to rebuild your board. A pair of Independent Stage 11 trucks in 149 or 159, kingpin slightly loosened to absorb impact, worn hangers welcome. What changes everything: the wax. Slappy = mandatory wax, otherwise you’ll stick hard and break your knee. The winning combo in 2026: Diamond Wax or Curb Candy, applied like a crayon on the edge for 1.50 m.

The spot? A 10 to 15 cm sidewalk, clean edge, smooth asphalt at the base. Everything your city has self-service. That’s the promise. Skateboarding has returned to what it was before brands decided performance was the only value: a sidewalk, a truck, a curb, and the silly joy of having slid on it for two seconds.

If you want to feel the vibe before everyone else: grab your skateboard, find the least crowded curb in your neighborhood, put some wax on it. You’ll understand why Gonz, at 56, is still doing them. And why in 2026, he’s the viral one.