Austrian-born Anna-Selina Kager is a retired semi-professional downhill skateboarder who competed overseas and in Australia.

Now Anna-Selina and three of her friends would like to share their skills to help reconnect the community post-Covid in a fun way.

It’s called Rolling Rural. A community-focused get-together for adults to have fun while safely learning how to longboard.

“The initial idea for Rolling Rural was for it to be a group for 30-year-olds and older,” Anna-Selina said.

“Some people might be a bit put off when they see people in their 30s or 40s longboarding. They might think I can’t do that; I don’t have the balance.”

“But long boards are a lot more like surfboards or snowboards, not like skateboards.

“Longboarding is actually quite easy to learn,” she said.

Anna-Selina lives on a farm with her fiancé outside of Warwick and can see how adults may start to feel isolated and disconnected from other people their age.

“For me longboarding was always the one thing that connected me with people and made me feel alive.

“As we get older, we forget that being playful and having fun is something that is immensely important for us.

“There’s actually research that links playfulness with positive mental health,” she said.

Anna-Selina is passionate about encouraging change, action sports and community engagement.

Over the past 10 years, she has initiated several projects around the globe through her involvement with the sport of longboarding.

Anna-Selina lived in Vietnam for two years and while she was there, she began a charity program called Viet Shred.

“It was a small charity program where I supported local skateboarders to access sponsorship and help them be able to attend events and conferences.”

A few years later, she moved to Brisbane and started up the Brisbane Longboard Family.

“The name became Longboard Family Inc. It’s an organisation that provides workshops to beginner longboard skaters to help empower them and the community,” Anna-Selina said.

“We held programs with the Brisbane, Logan and Ipswich City Councils, some schools and community-based youth organisations, including Headspace Warwick.”

Rolling Rural happens every Tuesday afternoon at 5.15 pm.

However, please contact Anna-Selina on Facebook for venue details.