Specialized Team America's Kyle Strait continued his successesful start to the 09 seaosn by claiming the silver medal in the dual stunt event.
Strait's silver medal put an exclamation point on his busy Sea Otter event schedule. As the only rider to contest both gravity events (downhill and dual slalom), as well as the freestyle event (dual stunt), Sea Otter's event organizers were forced to shuffle the event schedule around just to accommodate Kyle's ambitious goal to compete in both the pro men's downhill and the dual stunt competition on Sunday. Kyle was pushed to the front of the men's downhill field, so he could be the first rider down the course and the dual stunt competition was put on momentary hold until Kyle could arrive.
After immediately crossing the finish line on the downhill course, Kyle continued to race back to the Specialized Team America pit where he exchanged his Royal race kit, full-face helmet, Demo 8 DH bike and Vans clipless shoes for his P.3 hardtail, Team America t-shirt, Pro-tec skate helmet and Vans skate shoes and headed directly to the dual stunt course. After a quick practice run, Kyle lined up for his first heat against Andrew Cho.
After eliminating rider after rider, Strait eventually went head-to-head in the scorching mid 90-degree heat against Whistler's Brandon Semenuk who had been flawless throughout the event beating out all other competition with ease. After two tight races through the technical course, Strait would have to settle for 2nd as Semenuk launched himself over the last obstacle ahead of Strait.
"I'm really stoked on my performance this weekend," said Strait. "Semenuk gave me a run for my money and really deserved the win. I'm just happy that I pushed him so hard that he threw up after the race!"