Thomas Galarneau

Profile and significance

Thomas “Tom” Galarneau is a Canadian freeski rider from Saint-Sauveur, Québec, who blends contest chops with an edits-first, street-friendly outlook. A graduate of the Ski Acro Québec slopestyle program, he broke onto broader radars with Nor-Am starts and a string of film and community projects, including a solo street part titled “Metamorphosis” and back-to-back SuperUnknown semi-finalist nods. Recently welcomed to the Surface Skis team, he’s part of a new Québec wave that treats parks and streets as the same classroom—calm approaches, patient pop, and clips that read clearly at half speed. Galarneau’s significance lies in that clarity: he is an emerging rider whose skiing is both replayable and realistically teachable.

Competitive arc and key venues

Galarneau’s competitive résumé runs through Canada’s Nor-Am circuit with key results in 2022. He earned a top-ten in men’s slopestyle at WinSport Canada Olympic Park in Calgary during the February Nor-Am stop, then added starts at Aspen’s Buttermilk venue and the Québec end-of-season swing at Stoneham Mountain Resort. Those venues matter: WinSport’s compact, purpose-built course rewards timing and line efficiency; Buttermilk’s broadcast-grade decks force honest speed and late-set patience; Stoneham’s XL 418 park and night-skiing rhythm build rail timing you can carry into the streets.

Parallel to contests, he chased peer-judged and edit-driven milestones. His solo project “Metamorphosis” screened at Montréal’s iF3 Urban stop, signaling a pivot toward street storytelling, and his SuperUnknown semi-finalist selections with Level 1 confirmed he could stand out in a global am field. Add appearances at Québec community sessions and rider-run gatherings, and the result is an athlete developing in both public scoreboards and the culture that sets taste.

How they ski: what to watch for

Galarneau skis with economy and definition—the two traits that make modern slopestyle and urban/street skiing readable. Into a jump lip he stays tall and neutral, sets rotation late, and locks the grab before 180 degrees so the axis breathes on camera. On rails, look for square, unhurried entries; backslides and presses held just long enough to be unmistakable; surface swaps with minimal arm swing; and exits where the shoulders stay aligned so momentum carries to the next feature. Even at higher difficulty the landings read centered and inevitable—hips over feet, ankles soft—so you see the idea rather than the recovery. It’s a movement language you can slow down and learn from.

Resilience, filming, and influence

“Metamorphosis” was Galarneau’s statement that edits matter as much as rankings. Framed as a first full season in the streets, the part shows the shovel work, speed checks, and one-try pressure that define Québec urban skiing—thin cover, short in-runs, tight exits. The cut’s pacing lets viewers read slope angle and approach speed without guesswork, which is why it played well at iF3 and across the park/urban community. SuperUnknown semi-finalist slots in consecutive years extended that reach to an international audience that watches with the pause button, measuring timing and body organization as much as difficulty.

Since joining Surface Skis, he has mixed travel days in Utah—spring laps captured at Park City Mountain and sessions at Woodward Park City—with edits and premieres back home. The thread through all of it is repeatability. Tricks are chosen for how clearly they read and how well they set up the next shot, not just for shock value. That approach tends to influence younger riders more than a single viral clip; it’s a style you can copy on a weeknight park.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains the method. In the Laurentians, Saint-Sauveur’s freestyle hub at Versant Avila provides dense rail sets and high-volume night laps that turn calm entries and square exits into habits. Year-round acro work at iMaximise layers in air awareness, safe reps on airbags, and trampoline precision that carries straight to jump cadence. East of Québec City, Stoneham offers an XL park with big-deck timing and the lighting that keeps slopestyle rhythm sharp. When the circuit heads west, WinSport concentrates features into a contest-style line, while Colorado and Utah trips—Park City and Woodward Park City—add consistent shapes for drilling entries, grabs, and landings under changing wind. Thread those spots together and you can see their fingerprints in every clip.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Galarneau rides with Surface Skis, aligning with a program known for street-capable twins and a film-forward ethos. For skiers who want to borrow his feel, the hardware lessons are straightforward. Choose a true park twin with a balanced, medium flex you can press without folding and that stays predictable on moderate-size takeoffs; detune contact points just enough to reduce rail bite while keeping trustworthy grip on the lip; and mount close enough to center that switch landings feel neutral and presses sit level. Keep binding ramp angles from tipping you into the backseat so hips can stack over your feet. More important than any single product is the workflow his edits model: film laps, check shoulder alignment and hip-to-ankle stack, and repeat until patient pop, early grab definition, and square-shoulder exits are automatic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Thomas Galarneau because his skiing survives slow-motion scrutiny. The clips emphasize timing, organization, and line design over noise, whether the backdrop is a night lap at Versant Avila, an XL day at Stoneham, or a contest build at WinSport. Progressing riders care because the same choices are reproducible in the parks they actually ride: stay tall into the lip, set late, define the grab early, hold presses long enough to read, and exit with shoulders square so speed survives for what’s next. As his film catalog grows alongside selective starts, Galarneau offers both a proof of concept and a blueprint for turning modest features into confident, stylish freeskiing.