Retro rollers skate away the ageing blues

A Noosa mum put her skates back on to relive her disco-rolling youth and her idea has really taken off.

Tanya Stevens loves the social retro vibe at the Noosa-Tewantin Rollers skating sessions.

A Noosa mum put her skates back on to relive her disco-rolling youth and her idea has really taken off.

Tanya Stevens, 52, founded the Tewantin-Noosa Rollers four years ago.

It quickly caught on with women of all ages and some blokes who just wanted to have fun out on the Noosa Leisure Centre roller skating rink.

It came after she asked Santa for a pair of rollerskates for Christmas and her family decided to indulge her.

Intense buyer interest in Coast beach house

Profiler helps people deal with their inner wombat

"I had this great idea that I'd rollerskate around Noosa on the sidewalks but it wasn't to happen," Ms Stevens said.

"There's too much debris."

So her next smart move was to set up her own regular sessions at Noosa Leisure Centre to avoid having to make the trip down to Caloundra or Gympie skating rinks.

The fortnightly freewheeling gatherings are for 18s and over with the majority of regulars in the 30-60 age bracket.

"It's for people who skated back in the 80s, it's to get that fun back," Ms Stevens said.

Tanya Stevens and her Tewantin-Noosa Rollers love to capture the fun of their disco rolling days at the Noosa Leisure Centre.

Ms Stevens said she was a skater girl back in the day going to her local roller rink every Saturday night.

So once a fortnight the leisure centre lights up all their lives with a funky beat and flashbacks.

"It's that old school disco atmosphere with the music going, the lights on - it's just fun to get on rollerskates and skate around for two hours," Ms Stevens said.

Ms Stevens said her two-hour sessions were nothing like knock 'em down, drag 'em out roller derby bashes, but the thought has crossed her mind.

"I did think about it at the very beginning, but once we all showed up and had our first skate it was very clear that we weren't going to be a roller derby group," she said.

"We've actually had a few roller derby girls come and skate with us because they just want to skate around and have fun without the drills and the fact of getting hurt.

"It's just a social day, it's just two hours to leave the kids behind."

She said they got a great workout without really noticing.

"It's actually better than riding a bicycle the health benefits of it, but you don't realise you're doing it because you're just having fun," she said.

Roller sessions are held at the Noosa Leisure Centre every Saturday fortnight from 4pm till 6pm.

Originally published as