One Move, Checkmate with Rook Fingerboards | S3 E136

On this week’s episode of the USAFBL Fingerboard Podcast, we’re live from the Detroit stop of the 2025 Northern Regional Tour with a special guest, Jake from Rook Fingerboards (@rook_fb)!

Jake opens up about taking two years away from the scene, balancing family and work, and what inspired his comeback. We dive into the origins of Rook FB, the craftsmanship behind his true-wear ink-transfer graphics, and how he’s pushing innovation in deck making. From experimenting with custom lacquers and metallic finishes to revisiting hand-poured concrete obstacles, Jake’s attention to detail sets him apart.

We also talk about the Michigan-Ohio fingerboard community boom, the evolution of U.S. events, and what’s next for Rook FB. It’s a conversation about creativity, discipline, and coming back stronger than ever.

If you enjoy the show, please like, follow, and share!

 If you haven’t been keeping track, we have weekly episodes! Audio versions out on Wednesday and video version out on Thursdays!

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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:12)
Welcome to USAFPL Singapore podcast. I'm your host of like Cunningham and here I've got Jake, Jake of Rook FB. Welcome to the pod, Jake. Man, it's been a while.

Speaker 1 (00:20)
Hey, how's it going?

Yeah, yeah, was out of the scene for about two years. ⁓ We had our second boy and I had switched jobs and we moved towns and just didn't have the time to devote to it. You know how I am about the quality of my boards and it just, I didn't have time to get in the shop for quite a while, but yeah, happy to be back.

Speaker 2 (00:45)
Yeah, straight into it. Okay, I like it. All right. First off, we're live. We're live here at the Detroit stop at the Macy on a temple for the USFL 2025. Northern regional tour stop, man. Alright, so I originally got into finger boarding back when COVID started and you were pretty much kind of doing the exact same thing. I think most of us came back during COVID and you're on fire. Like you were making crazy amounts of

the ⁓

Speaker 1 (01:22)
When I get on it, I really get on it. I kind of have a problem where when I devote to something, that's just all I want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:31)
Man, all right, so talk to us a little bit about when you got started and tell us a little bit about like what happened as far as like, you you being gone, I guess, for like two years. I know life kind of happens and things like that. I'm glad that you're back, but kind of give us a history lesson of like, you know, where you're from and how you got started back with COVID basically kind of came in.

Speaker 1 (01:53)
Yeah, well, I was born and raised down in Fremont, Ohio. So it was same as you about 2020. I got into the fingerboard making. When I got out of the army back in the day, I had gotten into some bad decisions in my life. And I finally cleaned that up in 2018. Met my wife in 2019. We had a kid and I didn't even know about pro fingerboarding, bro. I had a

and ⁓

Yeah, so I got a fingerboard mold just to make my own board and make one for my brother and his buddy, you know, and they came out and was actually pretty decent at making them. So I kind of worked at it a little bit and it just kind of steamrolled from there. know, people started asking if I could make decks for them. And then I started experimenting in the split pies for a while during my early days. That's what I was doing like twenty, twenty one era. Well, you know, a lot of it was like split pie work.

Then I kind of, wanted to get into real-world graphics, but I didn't really have the funds for it at the time and I didn't want to do the same thing that everybody was doing. So I kind of started working with ink transfer graphics and started talking to local paint shops and print shops. And over the course of about a year, I figured out our method for the true-world graphics that we do.

Speaker 2 (03:43)
I was interested on those because you're I won't want to say you're the only one doing it, but I feel like you're the only one doing it.

Speaker 1 (03:50)
There's

a couple other companies that are doing it, but I don't think any of them are doing it quite like us. We've had a pretty lengthy process for it. It involves using the ink transfer on the board, doing a water soak on the board to get it to set in. We use a heat gun twice during the process to get the ink to set into the wood. And then I've got a local paint shop down there in Ohio that I get a custom lacquer from that allows it to wear more like a real board.

Speaker 2 (04:21)
Dude, the research and development that you have.

Speaker 1 (04:23)
Like I said, yeah, it took about a year of trial and error ⁓ before I got them to where I'm happy with the way that they wear in.

the ⁓

Speaker 2 (05:10)
Right kicks on old man, they're fun.

man. Okay. All right. So talk to us about some of the things that you're doing right now. And then maybe let's leak a little bit of the stuff that you got going on in the future.

Speaker 1 (05:32)
Yeah, well right now I'm just, ⁓ the day job's killing me. I'm working 60 hours a week, but trying to get into the shop when I can. ⁓ Always working on a new series. I've got another new series of anime graphics coming out. I'm gonna experiment with some more reflective graphics like the holographic gold, some blues, stuff like that, know, metallic colors. And hopefully getting some new Crete here in the near future.

It's a fun. Yeah, it's been quite a while since I've done a poor

Speaker 2 (06:04)
It

is fun, especially if you have a way of making your own molds like 3D printing and some of the time you're on molds and stuff to do there.

Speaker 1 (06:12)
Yeah, that's what I tend to use is soft silicone molds with wood frame around them. Okay. And that's generally how I do. ⁓ Well, you've seen my creepy floor. It's like inlaid metal and yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:24)
used to do the little loaves and the curves and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:27)
the

Speaker 2 (06:32)
You

actually were I had you as a vendor in our shop back when we were in Minneapolis. All that. So that's how far back you go. So,

Speaker 1 (06:37)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that was cool, man. That was like the first big event we ever did was your indie event.

Speaker 2 (06:45)
that ⁓

Speaker 1 (07:14)
Right,

yeah, no dude, what you guys are building here is awesome. The way that you've been spreading the sport around the last couple years, it's insane to see how much it's grown in the American community.

rendezvous

Great work.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's something every week if you wanted to travel around for it. It's Yeah, dude, it's it's crazy we got a nice little cluster of borders in the southern Michigan northern, Ohio or

Speaker 2 (07:53)
especially here in the state of Michigan. ⁓

It is wild. I even hear people talking about like their next gathering or next meetup. They're talking about ⁓ crashing some random brewery bar or whatever every Wednesday or something. Like, what do do? Kick us out? Like those we're paying for food. Like they're literally just just meeting. It's crazy. And I love it. I love hearing these things.

Speaker 1 (08:20)
that

Speaker 2 (08:28)
Man, I love it. All right, Jake, where can people find you on the Internet?

Speaker 1 (08:32)
yeah you guys can find me on instagram at ⁓ rock underscore at the and then on face book you can look up rock finger boards or jake of rock jake rock i any of those are bring us up and you guys will see our logo it's the the rock test piece with the name on the top yet it is that it just happened you know it match my name and it way works you know i mean it's nice employees it'll remember

Speaker 2 (08:50)
I love that.

True,

that's true. Classy. Very classy. Well, I appreciate you getting on the pod, man.

Speaker 1 (09:05)
Heck

yeah, dude. I hope to keep seeing the scene grow. ⁓ Hope to see you making more stops next year, you know.

Speaker 2 (09:12)
I don't want to, I definitely want to. Hell yeah, till next time.

Speaker 1 (09:14)
So, yo. Alright,

take care guys.

Speaker 2 (09:51)
Escape from the dome

Take I'm sorry like a bird every trick a story every slot a word grinding on the edge I'm fingerboard ⁓

Speaker 1 (10:11)
in the mold Dreams with the waiting code

you

Escape, Parker!

as they scre- in this finger-boardin'

Speaker 2 (10:50)
You