The 15 year-old recently signed new contracts with DC Shoes and Volcom Clothing both of which place him in good stead to break into the big time. The new deals were confirmed by Kieran’s parents and are for two years with a third year option in Kieran’s favour.

These two contracts compliment sponsorship deals with several other companies, including Red Bull, Electric Sunglasses, Nixon Watches and Blind Skateboards.

Kieran has quit school to focus on his skateboarding fulltime and recently embarked on a three week trip to the USA where he filmed an upcoming video with the DC International Team.

While in the USA Kieran competed in the Tampa AM (Florida), which is the most prestigious amateur street skateboard competition in the world.

In past years the winners of this comp have turned professional shortly after. The comp was held from December 5 -6 and Kieran finished a respectable 22nd out of 95 competitors.

The Tampa AM was on the back of a strong program in November where Kieran competed in three street skateboard competitions in Thornleigh, Melbourne and Sydney all featuring the best skateboarders in Australia and New Zealand.

He made the finals in all three competitions, finishing in fifth place in Melbourne, and winning both the Thornleigh and Sydney competitions.

In the process, he amassed a collective sum of $2,200 in prize money (he currently boasts $21,000 in career earnings).

Kieran is scheduled to compete in the 2009 Mountain Dew Invitation, to be held at Olympic Park, Homebush, on February 7 next year, 2009.

The competition features 20 of the Asia-Pacific regions best skateboarders, including established Aussie professionals Lewis Marnell and Jake Duncombe.