Psycho Sports Cartel flies over Malta

If for some reason you missed the freestyle motocross demo put on by Jason Springfield and Paul Smith of Psycho Sports Cartel last Saturday and Sunday in Malta, you missed a show of epic proportions. The show was brought to the Car Show by Malta's own Shane Carnahan.

"We came out to the car show to do a jump show for the crowd out here," Springfield said. "It's just entertainment; we were throwing it down for the people of Montana."

The duo reached upwards of thirty to thirty-five feet in the air while clearing a gap of seventy-five feet from ramp to ramp, while doing death defying seat grabs, flips and other stunts.

"This crowd is all about it," Springfield said. "It pumps me up, everyone gets pumped up and it just brings good vibes and it's just awesome."

Springfield has been riding dirt bikes since he was four years old and has been professionally riding since 2009, but the journey hasn't been without adversity.

"Within that time came many injuries, it's been trial and error and we're still doing it," he said.

Springfield's talents have taken him on an international tour.

"I got to go to Poland," he said. "I did a one month tour Monster X World Tour there. I threw down at four different stadiums with crowds of 25,000 plus. It's a dream come true to fly around the world just to ride my dirt bike."

The Psycho Sports Cartel pulled out more than a dozen tricks during their shows in Malta but Springfield does have a favorite.

"I like doing my look back indies," he said. "It's a Superman seat grab with your feet over your head and you're looking behind you."

He is also a fan of flips and last Saturday's show featured Springfield doing his first ever back flip from metal ramp to ramp, a move he had only done in dirt events before.

"This here will be my first ramp to ramp flip show," he said after his first show on Saturday. "I've only flipped ramp to dirt."

Even with experience, Springfield acknowledged that there are definite risks.

"A lot of broken bones go behind the scenes of all this stuff," he said. "It takes a strong mind to keep going at it."

To add to the pressure of performing at the Car Show, Springfield and the crew had been working on limited sleep thanks to a two day road trip from Temecula, Calif.

"Four guys in one truck, going thirty-five to sixty miles per hour max," Springfield said. "That was a long trip towing this thing up the grades but we made it and we're here."

Even with limited sleep the team found a way to put on a show.

"You just have to be focused," Springfield said. "Put yourself in that state of mind, just block everything out, do what you know how to do, and just don't think about everything else."

He also mentioned keeping a healthy diet helps.

The team did suffer one casualty as teammate Travis Cady of Sidney, Mont. was injured while the team was testing the ramp last Friday night.

"It was his first jump and he overshot it," Springfield said. "Sometimes it's nerves. It happens. He will be alright. That guy's pretty gnarly to just walk away from that and come back at it to hang out and support us."

The team's acts are death defying, risky and have even brought forth some disapproval from friends and family, but to see a Psycho Sports Cartel Demo, one would think the riders were super human.

"As a spectator I'm just going wow, we really do this thing," Springfield said. "These guys are insane."

Then a metamorphosis happens.

"You get nervous, then you put your helmet on, everything is blocked out," he said. "You switch into this warrior mode and just have fun on my bike. I don't know what it is but I've had the same feeling on my bike when I was four years old. I'm 37 now and nothing has changed."

Springfield has done what often times so many people in the U.S. don't. He chased his dreams and he is living his dream today.

"You sacrifice homes and cars just to downsize everything, not caring what people say," Springfield said. "They say you're a bum, this and that but they don't understand the drive you have to have to be successful at something.

"Not too many people are able to follow their dreams with all the negatives going through your head," he continued. "A lot of people tell you, you can't do that and you can't do that. If you don't kid yourself and you have that passion about what you can do, you can make it happen. And I'm proof of that, right here."