How to Rock to Fakie on a Skateboard

Rock to Fakie Skateboarding Trick Tips

The Rock to Fakie is a skateboarding trick performed on a quarterpipe of the mini ramp. The skater rides up the ramp and, right at the top edge of the ramp (called the "coping"), he or she stops with the board balanced right in the middle on the coping. the skater rocks up a little, then back down and rides back down the ramp, going the opposite way that the skater rode up (riding this way is called "fakie"). Rock to fakies is an easier ramp trick to learn and a lot of fun. Like a lot of skateboarding tricks, the name "Rock to Fakie" can get confused with other names, like the Rock and Roll, which is related, but means something a little different.

Before you learn to rock to fakie, you should first get comfortable riding your skateboard and be comfortable riding on mini ramps or quarterpipes. It's recommended to start on a mini ramp instead of a quarterpipe or halfpipe. Once you are comfortable on the smaller ramp, you can work your way up. Of course, if you want to go right for the bigger ramp, you can!

Read all of these instructions first, and make sure they make sense to you. Picture what you will be doing in your mind, and make sure it makes sense before you go out and try it!

Riding Up and Stance

So you've got your mini ramp, or huge ramp, or whatever. Good. Now, you will want to get enough speed heading toward the ramp and skate straight up it. You will want enough speed to get to the top (the coping).

You want your front foot to be over your front trucks, or maybe even a little closer to the nose. Just a little. You want your back foot across the tail of your board. Basically, you want your feet in the ollie position, with the front foot just a little closer to the nose of your board. Look at Tyler's feet in the photo above to get a good idea.

Rocking

You want to ride directly up to the top of the ramp and lean forward toward the nose of your board. Your goal is to get the front trucks over the edge.

Now, a lot of skaters chicken out and just barely put their trucks over the edge, wait there a minute, and then head down. Practice getting a real rock to fakie down - try and hit the coping with the middle of your deck, like a boardslide, and put your weight on our front foot so that you rock forward.

Now lean back again, shifting your weight to the tail. Pop the front trucks back over the edge, and with your weight on your back foot, let gravity pull you back down the ramp.

Ride Down Fakie

Turn and look down the ramp, and with your weight on your back foot, you want to ride back down in the fakie direction.

Riding fakie might feel awkward but go for it. It's similar to riding switch, but your feet are in the wrong position.

You can, once you have ridden down the ramp a little, kick-turn around and ride down the ramp regular, if you want to, or you can try doing something else - mix in another trick in there. That's totally okay; for the first times you try it, We recommend just riding down fakie, keeping your weight on that back (now riding in the front!) foot.

Problems and Variations

A lot of rock to fakie problems have to do with skaters not taking the time to first get used to simply riding. Make sure that you are comfortable riding around, and that you know what it feels like to ride a ramp. If you can't ride up a ramp, kick-turn, and ride back down, then you should get comfortable with that first.

There is also the unfortunate problem where you can ride up the ramp, get your trucks over the edge, and then your trucks get stuck there and you fall. This can hurt. The problem is that you are just barely getting those trucks over the coping and that you aren't shifting your weight the right way. Try and get those trucks way over the edge, make sure you get a real rock forward in there, and then when you rock back it will be easy for your front trucks to pop back over the edge. Once you have your Rock to Fake dialed in, you can try adding tweaks to it.

One fun variation is to ride up the ramp fakie, and rock to your normal stance. It works exactly like a rock to fakie, but your feet will feel weird while you ride up.

You can also try this trick switch, for a challenge. It's always good to mix some switch practice every once in a while, to keep your muscles and brain from getting lazy.

After learning to Rock to Fakie, try Rock and Rolls, and for something different try Axle Stalls!