Born in Boston on Nov, 14, 1993, Gallagher lived briefly in Bridgewater, Mass. before moving to Shelburne when he was two-years-old. His family includes parents, Kathy and Joe, and two older sisters, Cara and Rose, 18 and 20-years-old respectively.

An active member of the Champlain Valley Union (CVU) snowboarding club for the past two years, Gallagher began his foray into boarding as a skier at age three. "I started riding seven years ago when I was in the fourth grade at the Shelburne Community School (SCS)," he shares. Conscientious readers may also recall that Gallagher went by the nickname "Tic Tac" in a previous article in the Shelburne News. Why Tic Tac? "Trying to impress the girls at SCS," Gallagher reveals, "I brought in Tic Tac breath mints. Thanks to a friend the nickname stuck with me."

According to snowboard club advisor Troy Paradee, "The club started several years ago but as the upperclassman graduated the club kind of fizzled. Last year another group surfaced and were very interested in getting the club going again. Last year we had about 10-20 teens involved and this year it's closer to 40." Paradee emphasized, "While most of the boarders and freestyle skiers in the club just like to go and ride together, Gallagher has consistently been winning the Bolton Night Rider series."

The Night Rider series is a seven-week competition held every Wednesday night under the lights at Bolton Valley Resort. Every Wednesday the competitions change. One week it's a slope style competition, the next week it's a rail jam. Through six weeks of competition Gallagher is the current leader in his age group of 13-17 year olds. And that includes two weeks when he was unavailable to participate. Now that's what snowboarders call a bonus life. (A slang term for when a boarder trounces all others in a competition.)

The CVU student also plans to compete in the RedBull Buttercup Rail Jam at Bolton Valley in two weeks. For those of you unfamiliar with snowboarding, a rail jam is a contest where riders perform tricks on rails, boxes, pipes, wall rides, and several other creative features. Rail jams are done in a small area, usually with two or three choices of features for the rider to hit on a run.

"Other than a practice run I don't do much to prepare for a competition," said the 16-year-old, "Which isn't much of a ritual," he readily admits. But that's not what's important to this student-athlete. Instead, Gallagher focuses on adding new moves to his riding repertoire. "Last week I learned how to do a Rodeo 540," he says proudly explaining the move, "It's a combination back flip, a 360°, with a spin, a 180°, for a total of 540 degrees. It's my greatest snowboarding achievement to date," commented Gallagher.

In addition to the snowboarding club, Gallagher runs cross country and was on the CVU track and field team last year. He will forgo track and field this season, concentrating instead on earning money to help him improve his snowboarding skills. To that end, Gallagher landed a job at the Shelburne Supermarket three weeks ago. As he tells it, "I'm mostly a janitor and grocery bagger," he comments, "But I enjoy the work. Especially since the money I make will give me the opportunity to attend snowboarding camp in Mt. Hood, Ore. this summer." Thanks to Mt. Hood's glacier and massive winter snowfalls, snowboarders can ride all summer long.

As a sophomore Gallagher has plenty of time to consider his future, but as expected, he's already thinking ahead. "I would love to go to college wherever I can snowboard. Especially out west," he says. Two schools under consideration are the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Montana at Bozeman. But if those schools don't work out he has other options. "My sister goes to Plymouth State University in Plymouth, N.H. It's close to Loon and Waterville mountains so I would definitely think about throwing Plymouth State in the mix," he says.

Gallagher appears to be a self-made and goal oriented young man willing to push his limits to learn something new and in his case, the sky is literally the limit. That's some way of life.