Who's Rad? Emma Houle.
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| Photo Ian Logan |
She's only 13 years old and as already racked up over 8 thousand followers on instagram. Her posts get 500+ likes on a regular basis. She films herself - usually in the street in front of her house - trying trick after trick, but the best part is she films and keeps the misses to show other girls that it's not always easy, but it's always worth the practice it takes to master that one trick. Who is this girl??
We got to meet Emma at Ladies Day at the Berrics when we were telling her she could totally make that seven stair she was dying to try. Turns out she didn't need our encouragement, she had a whole gang of girls right by her side telling her the exact same thing. She may live a distance away from Los Angeles or San Diego, but instagram has kept her close to all the girls in the skate community and her unwavering encouragement of them, and her devotion to skateboarding has made for some good friends far and wide.
Age? 13 years old
Home is? Bakersfield, California
Home Park or Skate spot is? Beach park in Bakersfield
How Long Have You Been Skateboarding? about 1 year and a half.
What do you enjoy most about skateboarding?
Being able to not have to think about anything except for skating, learning new tricks and meeting new people!!
Tell us about your board set up – what brand of deck, wheels, trucks?
Diverse city deck, krux trucks, bones wheels, a bunch of random hardware, bronson bearings and mob grip.
Favorite music to skate to?
I don’t usually skate to music.
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| Emma at Diamond Park |
Girls Who Skate that inspire YOU:
My friend who I skate with a lot Esther Cortinas, Candy Jacobs, Chelsea Castro, everyone who skates for Meow Skateboards and Nora Vasconcellos!
Favorite place you've ever skated?
Definitely The Berrics! It was amazing.
Favorite Trick or maneuver?
Kickflips, it would be tre flips but my tre flips aren’t consistently clean YET!
Emma's Instagram is full of video clips like this one, of her learning tricks
We see on instagram that you film yourself learning tricks (misses and landings) – it’s a great source of inspiration for other girls – what made you come up with this idea?
I just wanted to show people that I and everyone else in the world has fail first to eventually succeed. I always liked seeing people learn new tricks and i kind of just thought that I’d like to see the process of people messing up until they land it, no one else was doing it so I decided too!
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| Emma with pro skater Chris Cole at Woodward West |
You just came back from Woodward West – What was your favorite part of the week?
I really enjoyed skating with the other girls that were there, meeting lots of new people and learning new tricks!!
What other girls did you get to skate with while there?
I got to skate with Jordan Beal and Courtney Akita!
Tell us a bit about your day there (walk us through it – as a lot of girls haven’t been to Woodward and are wondering what “a typical day” looks like.
When you wake up you go eat breakfast, after that you go to instruction, instruction lasts I think about 3 hours and it’s really cool because you’re in a group with people who skate just like you, next you have lunch once you are finished eating you have free skate usually they have little games and contests during this time, at about 5pm you go and eat dinner after you eat they have more games and things during your free skate until 10pm you have to go back to your cabin!
You just competed at Ladies Day at the Berrics – what was it like being around so many girls that skate?
It was so cool! I’ve never seen so many girls who skate at once before. It was crazy to see how good a lot of those girls are.
Sponsors:
My parents
XT outfitters
shop 3 thirty
diverse city skate decks
Lahi apparel
Balance your life bracelets
Three Things You Don't Know About Me:
1. One time i got hit in the face with a live turtle (it bit my friends arm and she threw it on accident)
2. I speak French fluently
3. I used to be a competitive figure skater
What’s Next?
I’m planning on flying out to Seattle, Washington this may for the Skate Like a Girl "Wheels of Fortune" contest! I’m super excited for that!!
Any advice for other girls out there learning to skateboard?
Don’t be intimidated by anyone, they all started somewhere just like you. Don’t give up and most importantly, have fun with it!!
Make sure you follow Emma on INSTAGRAM