Nationally ranked BMX freestyler sets sights on the future
By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA — The community may very well have a future Olympian in its ranks.
Evan Gallagher, a nationally ranked two-time New York state champion in BMX freestyle, has set his sights on his sport’s biggest contest.
And he’s only 11 years old.
Evan, who lives in the village, has been riding BMX freestyle since he took off his training wheels at 6 years old.
BMX freestyle is a motocross stunt riding sport that uses ramps similar to those in skateboard parks. Evan does tricks like 360s, where he jumps his bike and spins around mid-air; nac-nacs, where he jumps his bike into the air, twists his body and stands with one foot on a pedal; and feebles, in which one tire rides along the ramp and the other hangs on the side of the ramp.
“My favorite is a 360, where you spin all the way around in the air,” Evan said. “You get a bunch of speed by going on a quarter pike, pump down and then go up. I turn my head and look over my shoulder and go higher.”
Spinning your bike in mid-air — and many of the other tricks of Evan’s trade — can be scary to watch, but even scarier to do. As they say, however, practice makes perfect.
“The higher you go the scarier it gets, but once you get higher and higher, you start to get used to it,” Evan said.
Evan and his dad, Christopher Gallagher, have travelled around the country going to competitions, and Evan won the state competition two years in a row for his age group, in 2021 and 2022.
He also ranked fifth in the nation in the 9-10 age group, which secured him the state victory.
His travels have taken him to California, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and the Gallaghers next have plans to head to competitions in Michigan and North Carolina.
“You have to place in two competitions in order to go to the finals, so last year we did Arizona and Pennsylvania and he placed in both of those, so he was able to go back to Pennsylvania for the finals,” Gallagher said. “The year before, the finals were in California. There are also digital events where you make a video and send it in and that all gets grouped in, and there are national and state rankings. He won state last year and the year before in his age group, which was 9-10.”
BMX Freestyle competitions are scored based on the tricks the athlete performs, the difficulty level and how they use the course.
“You don’t want to use just one side of the course because then you won’t get that many points,” Evan said. “I use the entire course — you get more points that way.”
His dad is his main coach in the sport, but Evan has gone to Woodward, a freestyle summer camp in Pennsylvania, where he has gotten pointers and instruction from professionals in the sport, like Chase Pauza.
“Chase has been a big influence in Evan’s life,” Gallagher said. “He is a super amazing guy, the most pure soul I have ever met in my life. He has looked out for Evan from Day 1. When he first went to camp and he rode with him, Chase told me Evan had a bike that was too big for him, he should be on a smaller bike, so I got him the right-sized bike and it just progressed his riding. Chase has always been there for Evan throughout all of this, and through Chase we have met tons of other people and got sponsors, too.”
Evan has ridden alongside some of the biggest athletes in his sport, like Olympian Nick Bruce, one of the first to qualify for the fledgling Olympic sport.
And Evan has set his sights on the same goal.
“I want to go to the Olympics one day,” Evan said.
BMX freestyle is a pricey sport — Gallagher said he has invested over $2,000 in his son’s bike, which is specially made for the rigors of BMX stunts.
“It is worth it in the long run — you have to make the bike light for his size so he can do the tricks,” Gallagher said.
Evan expressed an interest in BMX freestyle since his earliest days riding a bicycle.
“When he was 5 years old he wanted a skateboard, so we got him a skateboard. My daughter’s friend at the time gave him a tote bag full of ramps and skateboards. He was kind of into skateboarding but one day I saw a bike at Walmart and bought it for him and he started playing with the bike and watching videos on YouTube and decided he wanted to ride a bike,” Gallagher said. “I told him he wasn’t getting another bike until he could ride without training wheels, so he went outside and tried to take the training wheels off his bike by himself. I brought him to a parking lot and he just took off — no training wheels.
“We got him a freestyle bike and that was it.”
Freestyle gives kids who are not into team sports an outlet to show off their own skills.
“Some kids love to play baseball, some love football, and he does love some sports, but he is just a kid that wants to ride his bike,” Gallagher said. “I am super proud of him and I give him a lot of credit for what he does. Some of the things that he does are scary — I won’t even slide down some of the ramps he goes down.”
“I am very proud of him for loving something and just wanting to ride every day.”
Evan was recognized by the Ravena Village Board at its April 18 meeting “for his dedication, determination and diligence in achieving all these awards,” Mayor Bill Misuraca said of Evan’s accomplishments.
After receiving his award, Evan performed an encore for the village board — jumping up and down on his back wheel three times consecutively.
