I have always loved the odd and weird sports. I was never good at running, my hand eye coordination is trash and gym culture didn’t quite click. I often found exercise hard. As a kid I had rollerblades and even had my 6th birthday party at the local skate rink, so I always had a soft spot for flying around on wheels.
2020 came and as we all know roller skating absolutely blew up (as did the world)! I was a ‘type B’ primary school teacher trying to cope in a very ‘type A’ world and bought a pair of roller skates to take my mind off things. In December I laced up my first pair of (adult) skates and was instantly hooked. I took them with me on a van road trip and quickly became an expert at smooth concrete sourcing 👀 (iykyk). In the New Year I was struggling with changes at work and roller skating on the basketball courts after work became my new form of therapy.
After a few months I realised I wanted to up skill and learn the tricks that I had seen online so I began attending RollerFit classes in Brisbane. I soaked up every second of drills, dances, skills and good vibes that skating could bring. I found lifelong friendships! Between classes we would skate every footpath, netball court, road and carpark we could find chasing that skater high. We travelled to Sydney RollerFit for every roller disco, workshop and experienced coach we could learn from.
I ended up leaving my job as a teacher and began performing on skates instead. When looking for things to fill my time, RollerFit Brisbane was looking for coaches for the kids classes in Brizzy and I jumped at the chance! This quickly turned into coaching the adults classes too which brought me SO much joy.
In 2024 my partner and I moved to the Gold Coast, and I was left with a huge RollerFit shaped hole in my life so the hunt for a venue began. After a few months I found myself signing papers to hire RollerFit Gold Coast’s first venue and began teaching here on the Coast! The community here has been SO supportive, and I have loved watching so many of our students grow and achieve their skate goals. We moved to a new venue, Ikin Dance in Mermaid Beach, in Jan 2025. Here we have found so many creative, uplifting, and community focused collaborators to share our love of 8 wheels with. We love skating with the Gold Coast Rollout crew, performing with Ikin Dance, hosting council community events, learning new things and growing together.
I am so, so grateful for the life I live and the opportunity to share my love of roller skating with the community. Here’s to all of us learning more, skating more and spreading the joy of movement wherever we go.
<3 Kimmy
