Roller skating: You gotta roll with it

"RIGHT girl, are you ready?"

I’m standing on a pair of roller skates for the first time in over 30 years and I can feel my heart exploding against my ribcage. Santa brought my first pair of skates when I was 8 and in weeks I was the best skater on the road, but now with knee, arm, wrist pads and a helmet on I feel the adult panic and want to bail out. Recognising my fear, skate instructor, Caroline Brady shoots me a smile and somehow I have the confidence to step onto the rink. Within minutes it all comes back to me and I’m grinning from ear to ear just like when I was a kid and more importantly — I’m not falling down!

“It’s the fear of falling that’s most scary, but when you have all the protective gear on the fear goes and the memory and movement comes back,” Caroline explains as she glides alongside me at her Skate Fit class at Rollerjam.ie Limerick.