How Perth's king and queen of skating keep rolling back the years

Australia Broadcast Center

01-06-2025

When Peter and Barbara Rye get into their rollerskates, they move in a kind of unison that only comes after five decades of marriage — three of them on wheels.
Now aged in their seventies, the pair first fell in love with rollerskating when they competed in a couples' dance event in the 1990s, a time when the category was overflowing with skaters.
But the event has since died out.
In fact, Peter and Barbara were the only couple in the rink at the state championships in Perth this year.
Despite the challenges, the couple have maintained the same commitment to the sport as they have to each other, in the hope artistic rollerskating can be revived.
Peter and Barbara picked up the skates by chance when they were in their forties, and have been hooked ever since.
Despite their age, the couple trains about three times a week.
"You can trip each other up and we do sometimes have falls," Barbara said.
The joy of coming up with choreography and keeping the beat of the music has kept the pair engaged in the sport, even if there isn't much competition.
"It's still fun. It's still rewarding to go out there and compete, to push yourself," Peter said.
"So many people our age sort of just vegetate rather than push yourself and keep achieving.
"Even if sometimes you can't achieve what you used to be able to achieve."
When rollerskating first hit Australia in the 1980s, it was a booming sport for social and competitive skaters.
But participation declined over the following decades, as trends moved on and more options entered the market.
"Couples skating like [us] have really gone out of fashion, there are very few left now," Barbara said.
"It's a real shame that the young skaters aren't still doing it because they can do so much more than we can now."
Many of Peter and Barbara's peers have either given up the sport or died, but for those still committed to rollerskating, the competitions have become an opportunity to reminisce.
"The national championships isn't so much a competition as a reunion," Peter said.
"It's unfortunately becoming less and less so as our friends have faded away one way or the other."
The couple are now an anomaly in Perth.
But they don't mind standing out from the crowd and have no intention of slowing down while they are both willing and able to keep skating.
"You get some quite amazing feedback from the audience when we skate at competitions because we are quite unique," Peter said.
The fluctuation of rollerskating's popularity, particularly in a social capacity, has often been tied to popular culture.
Barbara said that cycle has kept her hopeful that up-and-coming skaters will start walking through the doors again.
"We've had ups and downs, but it's never stayed that way," she said.
Morley Rollerdrome owner Ozzy Kilgallon said the end goal was to get rollerskating to the Olympics.
"World sports are best when you watch on TV and then you can go and do it … it's accessible," he said.
"If they can get rollerskating to the Olympics, like skateboarding did, everyone will want to try it and that's a good thing.
"That will keep us going."