Roller skating club wants to revive the sport

The SK8 Addixion Roller Skating Club prides itself on teaching people to skate properly.

This is according to owner and coach Michael Wait.

Wait started the club in Durban in 2013, followed by the highlight of coming second at the national artistic and inline championship in 2015.

The following year Wait and his family moved to Boksburg where he restarted the club in 2017. They were skating at Skate World in Hughes before moving to their current venue at the Portuguese Hall on Dayan Road last year.

“This is the only artistic skating club in Ekurhuleni. It’s not about getting people to skate as they do on the rink. We want to teach them how to do it properly,” said Wait.

The 65-year-old began skating at a young age and returned to the sport at the age of 57, after taking a break of 40 years.

“I love the sport. The whole family can participate. It’s a fun activity and you work your whole body. We fall, laugh, get up and skate.”

The club achieved remarkable results at this year’s nationals, obtaining gold and bronze in the novice solo dance and a second-place finish in the novice group event.

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“We only started competing in May. It’s all because of hard work. We train every Saturday and Sunday. The girls are really dedicated.”

Miekie Haasbroek, Ntando Phahlane and Jessica van der Merwe represented the club at the nationals. Despite challenging conditions in Hammanskraal, the trio showed resilience and determination to win.

“I went on the rink and did my dance. But I was told the floor was too small and I had to start over. I was really scared but went through with it and did very well,” said Miekie who won the club’s only gold medal at the competition.

Unfazed by her fourth-place finish in the solo dance category, Ntando persevered and pushed herself to help the team in the group event.

“I was not stressed as it was my first championship. On the group event, we all came through for each other and won a silver,” she said.

Jessica came third in the solo novice dance. She said she was proud of herself and what they achieved as a collective.

“I did my best and tried my hardest. It was rewarding for us to win as a team.”

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