How to Ride Fakie on a Skateboard

A fakie is when a skateboarder rides backward with their feet in their normal stance and the tail of the board facing forwards in the direction of travel. When riding fakie, the skateboarder still focuses their attention in the direction they're moving.

To execute a fakie skateboarding trick is to perform the trick while riding backward, e.g., a "fakie ollie" or a "fakie kickflip." Whenever a rider starts a trick in their normal stance and lands a slide in their switch stance or does a revert, the phrase "to fakie" is then added to the trick name, e.g., a "frontside boardslide to fakie."

The terms "fakie," "switch," and "goofy" are easy to confuse, but they all have their own distinct meaning.

• A regular stance is when your left foot is the front foot, a goofy stance is when your right foot is the front foot, and a switch stance simply means you're using the opposite footing than what you normally use (a regular skater's switch stance is goofy-foot and a goofy skater's switch stance is regular-foot).
• A fakie is when you ride backward with your feet in your particular stance; when riding goofy and riding switch the nose of your board is in front, but when riding fakie the tail of your board is in front.

Riding fakie is relatively straightforward, and it’s easy to master with a little practice.

1. 1. Place your board on the ground with the tail end facing forward.
2. 2. Place your normal back foot on top of the forward-facing tail end of the board and push off the ground with your other foot.
3. 3. Once you've gained some momentum, place your pushing foot on the backward-facing nose of the board and carefully move your leading foot to the tip of the forward-facing tail end of the board.
4. 4. Look forward in the direction you're traveling. You should now be riding in the exact same stance as you normally ride, except you're leading with the tail end of your skateboard.

Learning how to ride fakie is essential for mastering tricks on vert ramps—like halfpipes or quarterpipes—since you must frequently switch from a forward-riding position to a backward-riding position.

1. 1. Begin riding in your normal stance.
2. 2. As you’re going up a transition wall, lean forward.
3. 3. As your board comes to a stop, shift your weight to your back foot, which becomes your lead foot as you roll back down the transition. This enables you to switch directions without turning.

Once you're comfortable riding fakie, a rock to fakie is a basic lip trick you can learn that will help you link together other tricks on a mini ramp. The rock to fakie involves placing the front truck over the lip of the ramp and then rocking the board slightly before skating back down the ramp riding fakie.

1. 1. Approach the coping going straight up so you’re perpendicular to it.
2. 2. As you near the coping, apply slight pressure to your tail to lift your front truck so it clears the coping.
3. 3. Shift your weight forward so the middle of your board comes to rest on the coping.
4. 4. Once you’ve rocked on the coping, shift your weight back into the bowl—but not so far that you fall backward.
5. 5. As you begin to reverse direction, put weight on your tail to ensure your front truck clears the coping once more and doesn’t get hung up on it.

Whether you’re just learning how to ollie or ready to tackle a Madonna (the vert trick, not the singer), the MasterClass Annual Membership can help you find confidence on your board with exclusive instructional videos from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, street skater Riley Hawk, and Olympic hopeful Lizzie Armanto.