15 May The King of Streets
Richard Gallant Lives in Calgary, AB. He is one of the great Canadian street riders of his generation, and produced some of the wildest video content to come out of Canada in the 2000s. After Richard posted a very old clip of a crazy ledge combo last week, we reached out and he sent over a few more things (either his parts, or things he was in that he was stoked on) to post here and on Instagram.
Additional Words by Jack Nicholl
It’s not easy to sum up who Richard is in a few paragraphs. He’s a one of a kind, skinny dipping, roof dropping, hurdy-gurdy playing, psychedelic bike riding, snow covered rail bombing, kind and genuine human being. The word Legend comes to mind, but he’s probably too modest for that title.
My first encounter with Richard was at the Rad 25th Anniversary contest in Cochrane. He rode in the contest in a tiny pair of shorts and a leather vest, looking like Andre the Giant and riding like an absolute maniac. I asked somebody who the hell the the guy in the booty shorts was, they just told me “That’s the King. The King of Streets”.
After moving to Calgary, I got to know Richard. Everything he does, he does with passion. His music room is filled with dozens of eclectic instruments that most people haven’t heard of. He plays them all skillfully and runs them through a suitcase filled with effects pedals. You can find him there messing around with distorted Hammered Dulcimer jams, or playing his massive harp pasted with Boicott BMX stickers.
Richard’s riding is as rad as his music. He can balance of gnarly and tech, and he’s been doing it for decades. Occasionally, he unearths clips of himself as a skinny 15 year old kid. Dropping off buildings, slamming through railings, it’s like he grew into how burly his riding was. I suppose riding an Eastern Hercules will either break you or make you into man of mythical proportions.
The more I think about it, the word Legend suits him just fine.