How to Rock to Fakie on a Skateboard

About the Rock to Fakie

The rock to fakie is one of the first coping tricks you will learn on a skateboard. It can be scary and difficult at first, with the risk of hooking your front wheels on the coping and falling backwards. If you work through the proper progression and learn to commit, this trick can come (almost) painlessly. The ideal place to learn a rock to fakie is on a 3-4 foot miniramp. Anything taller can be really scary when first learning.

Baby Steps

To start, make sure you can just pump the ramp no problem. You should be able to pump and get your front wheels up to where they are just about to touch the coping. The next step in learning this trick is to just barely bring your front wheels over the coping. In a proper rock to fakie, you’ll be rocking on the deck of the board without your wheels touching the ground at all. In this step, all of your wheels will still be touching. You’ll need to apply a very small amount of pressure to the tail of the board as you approach the coping to lift your front wheels up and over it. Just enough pressure to get the wheels up. Once you’ve hooked your wheels over the coping, immediately apply pressure to the tail again to bring your wheels back over the coping. This is where people tend to hesitate or not commit. You want to bring those wheels back over the coping as your body starts to go back down the ramp with gravity. If you apply too much pressure to the tail you will fall of the back of the board, and if you don’t apply enough your wheels will hook. This is a controlled step in learning that will give you the feeling of committing to bringing your wheels over the coping.

Dialing the Trick

Once you’ve got that step dialed, start trying to go higher and higher while leaving your back wheels on the ramp. Once the top third of your board is hitting coping and you’re feeling good with that, it’s time to add the rock. You’re going to go a bit higher than you have been and hit about the middle of your deck on the coping. From there, you will apply some pressure to your front foot to bring your back wheels off of the ramp. The only part of your board touching the ground should be the deck on the coping. Rock your weight forward, and then in a controlled motion apply weight back to the tail to allow your back wheels to hit the ramp and your front wheels to lift over the coping. Once your wheels are over the coping, apply your weight to roll back into the ramp. And that’s a rock to fakie.

Again, it’s a little intimidating and frustrating at first, but once you get it it’s a super fun trick that you’ll be doing for years. Let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions! Best of luck.