Dew Tour fans have seen Keegan Palmer coming for a couple of years. He was just 14 when he won the Dew Tour Am Bowl Final in 2017, 15 years old when he finished 7th in his first pro Dew Tour Final in 2018, and then fought his way onto his first Dew Tour podium in 2019 at 16, finishing 3rd behind Pedro Barros and Cory Juneau. He won the Australian National Championships in Gympie, Queensland in January, and is currently #5 in the World Skate rankings, meaning he’ll almost certainly represent Australia for skateboarding’s debut at the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021.
We caught up with him by phone from his home in Encinitas, California to check in on how he’s spending his downtime while the contest calendar is on pause.
Let’s start with Dew Tour Long Beach last year, your first Dew Tour podium. What came together there for you?
We had a long time to practice so I could get all my stuff locked, and that bowl really worked out well for me, too. I felt like I was getting lines and tricks no one else was getting and I started feeling more and more confident. I was stoked to get third, all the hard work paid off.
It seemed like you were skating really strong, really fast, and with a lot of confidence at every contest last year. Was there anything you did differently that you attribute that to?
Headspace was a big part of that. I was way more focused last year, because of the Olympics and stuff. I had good preparation for it. I’m also getting taller, I’m getting some more muscle. I just turned 17 in March and I can already feel that I’m able to do some things I wasn’t able to do even a few years ago.
I was going to ask what it was like going into a final, like last year, where you’re up against older skaters. Especially somebody like Pedro Barros.
A lot of people ask me if I get nervous skating against all these big-name guys, but it doesn’t make me nervous. They’re all my idols and I love watching them skate and I look up to them skating. Maybe I should get nervous? But I really don’t. It just makes me more excited and makes me do better, trying to see if I can beat some of these big names.
I saw that you won the Skate Australia National Championships event in January.
That was the hottest competition I’ve ever done! Hottest, not hardest. It was like 110 the whole time we were there, just steaming hot. I was burning up, but it worked out good. It was in Gympie, Queensland, in the middle of nowhere.
What’s the competition like, trying to make the Aussie Olympic team for Men’s Park?
Kieran Woolley is the hardest competition coming up. He came out of nowhere on the Vans Park Series last year and he’s just been getting better and better ever since. But then again, everybody in Australia is getting better because they’re building good parks everywhere now, finally. That was the main reason I moved to America, because the parks here are so much better and you can get prepared here better.
Are you still spending a lot of time back and forth to Australia?
I was last there in March, just because of the whole quarantine, but as soon as international travel is open again I’ll probably be on the first flight to Australia. We still have a house on the Gold Coast of Queensland that we rent out now, but I usually go to Sydney, because that’s where all the training facilities are. I train at the New South Wales Institute of Sport for physical therapy and gym training, and I stay with my coach Alex Donnini when I’m out there. He’s been a family friend for so long. They’ll get camps together with all the top Aussies, traveling to different parks in each state.
What have you been doing with yourself these past few months, as all the contests have been on hold?
I’ve been surfing pretty much every day with a lot of other skaters like Alex Sorgente, Grayson Fletcher, Toby Ryan, Bali Mosberg, my brother Bryson and his friends. Zion Wright just moved down here, so he’s going to be surfing a lot with us.
Have you been skating much?
The skateparks aren’t officially open yet but I’ve been able to keep my legs fresh with skating and stuff, and surfing every day. I’m also doing online school four times a week. I’m trying to graduate early, so I’m doing extra schoolwork through summer break just so I can get finished with it, hopefully, before the Olympics next year, and be done with it. I haven’t had any family members or friends or family friends that have had the coronavirus, and I don’t know anybody in the skate community that’s had it, fortunately.
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Have you gotten involved in any of the Black Lives Matter protests this month?
There was one in Cardiff the other day I went to check out and I also did the Black Lives Matter surf paddle out that they did at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas the other day. It was over 1,000 people in the water, splashing in a big circle. It was super awesome. It’s so sad to see some of the things that go on in this country and so good to see people out there protesting for the things that matter in this world.
Do you have any new goals you’re working towards now that you have a little bit more time before contests start back up and now that the Olympics has been pushed back to next year?
My headspace is still solid and I’ve still got that one goal: getting to the Olympics and doing well. I’m still fully focused on that. But it’s also been nice to take a little bit of a break, relax, let my body heal and feel good, and not be so stressed out about having to do each of these contests and do well in them. When the contests were all back-to-back last year, I was beat up. I was sore all the time! I’ve just been focusing on making sure my body’s feeling 100 percent, so I’m in my best shape. Honestly, I think when the next contest comes around I’ll feel 100 percent. I’m ready!
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