Get your skates on!

These rollerskaters mix fun, fitness and friendship

- Brigid Auchettl, Elizabeth Dimopoulos

There isn’t much that can keep Margaret “Margy” Walker from strapping on her rollerskates. Not cancer, not COVID-19, and certainly not her age!

Due to celebrate her 77th birthday in November, Margy from Bayswater, Victoria, fell in love with skating two decades ago and she hasn’t slowed down since.

“I learned to skate when I was in my 50s. I used to look after my granddaughter while her mum worked and I found they ran tots on skates class at a rink in Bayswater,” she tells Woman's Day.

Margy soon found a class teaching adults so she could keep up and was immediately hooked – just like so many other Australians who are falling in love with the sport.

Roll into Surf Coast Roller Skaters in Bellbrae on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and you’re likely to find music pumping through the speakers, and women dressed in gold spandex and sequins gliding across the room on rollerskates.

SKATING SAFELY

The vibe might be pure ’80s but owner Laura Issell, 37, is bringing skating into the 21st century. “During the pandemic, I realized lots of people were taking up rollerskating outside and noticeably skating unsafely,” says the Jan Juc local, who fell in love with the sport as a child.

“They needed to learn those skills safely.”