Flat Rocker vs. Anti-Rocker:

For years this has been the debate among rollers. Which is better? Do you know? Fortunately, there is no correct answer. Your personal preference will dictate the best way for you. Flat and Anti have their own advantages. One is great for skating street and the other rocks the vert ramp. Which best suits your skating style? Let's find out.

Flat Rocker

The word Flat Rocker means stock to me. Most skates (90%) come from the manufacturer Flat Rocker. That is the design of the stock frame and how a skate is meant to ride. All eight wheels down and touching the ground. Makes sense right? The more wheels you have on the ground rolling, the faster and more smooth the ride will be. Your skates are also more maneuverable. Having those wheels in the middle creates a pivot point. Having all the wheels down makes it a lot easier to turn and maneuver compared to an anti-rocker setup.

What works best with a flat rocker setup? In my opinion, park and ramp skating are ideal for flat rocker. By all means, you aren't limited to this, however. At a skate park you have quarter pipes, launch boxes and all that stuff. This is the type of place where you will need all the help you can get to maintain the highest level of speed when hitting these transitions. The most common problem with Flat Rocker setup is the wheel bite. This is when your 88A wheels grab a hold of the rail or ledge that you are grinding, and you get stuck and thrown off balance. Skate parks are designed with you in mind though, so the rails and ledges there are pretty much perfect. So this isn't a huge issue. When you skate street on the other hand, you aren't so lucky. If you do prefer to skate Flat Rocker, but want to maintain your street skating, I suggest only skating wheels 55mm or smaller. Try to find the hardest durometer out there. If you're lucky enough to have frames that you can rocker, point the outside wheels in, and the inside wheels out. This shortens your wheel-base, and increases your grinding space. I know a few people who have been skating Flat Rocker since day one. Don't get me wrong, you can skate street all day and all night on a flat setup. It's all about what works for you and your skating style. Having to get through this quickly, I am forced to explain the extremes. From my experience, most who leave flat don't go back.

Anti-rocker / Freestyle

This is the choice for a growing number of skaters. Anti-rocker uses 44mm to 48mm wheels (usually around 101A) in the middle wheel positions on your frame. The #2 and #3 wheel. These wheels should be hard. Not quite plastic hard, but hard enough for you to slide over just about anything. Freestyle setups take Anti-rocker to the next level. No middle wheels at all. This is great for a couple reasons. The first being that you have nothing in your way, so you can grind what ever it is you see. Second, you don't need to pay for wheels or bearings. Anti-rocker is great because your skates have plenty of room to grind. Plus, if you are rolling over uneven surfaces, your Anti's will get you through it more easily. Unlike the freestyle set up that can get caught up on stairs, roll-ins and what not.

The bottom line is this. There are as many different ways to skate as there are ways to set up your skates. There is only one way to figure out which is "best" for you and your skating style. Try all three. Skate Flat, Anti and Freestyle to see which is best for YOU.