The action sports hero out of Palmdale, California, had the Strip in the palm of his hand on Sunday afternoon. Colby Raha put on a one-man, one-bike, two-jump festival for several hundred fans at the Caesars Palace fountains.
Raha impressively jumped around, if not over, the famed fountains. The highest of his 100-foot-high jumps is likely to set a motocross record when verified.
Sunday’s soaring spectacle might be just the start for the 31-year-old X-Games gold medalist.
“I’m not done. I’m going to go for the biggest, farthest jump of all time,” Raha said. “We’re just building up to it.”
Asked if he’d star again as a headliner on the Strip, Raha said, “I have ideas in the future, we’ll see if they go for them. I want to go up to the Colosseum and jump back down.”
The stunt cyclist added that the 60th anniversary of Evel Knievel’s legendary 1967 jump is not so far off, so plan accordingly.
Raha said he believes at least one of his jumps Sunday established a record. That’s why he jumped into the Caesars fountain pool after the feat.
“I think I got close to the 100-foot mark, but we need to have our people look at the footage. We want to make sure it’s accurate,” Raha said after the event, the wind spraying Caesars fountains mist on the assembled media members. “All I know is I went higher than the record I currently own, 90 feet off the floor.”
Raha rose to that height in two jumps — after a series of practice passes — which seemed far more more than double the height of his 40-foot launch ramp.
This event was not the same format as previous jumps, Evel Knievel’s in 1967, His son Robbie’s pass in 1989 or Travis Pastrana’s in 2018. Those jumps were over the fountains. Raha set a pair of ramps (suitably branded with his Raha Ramps logo) side by side next to the fountains.
He started from the shrubbery near the Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen entrance, blasted down a red carpet, raced up the ramp on the right, twisted at his apex to face down, and descended on a wider and slightly taller ramp on the left.
The event featured some suspense, with winds gusting to 30 mph. That created a soggy landing spot on the carpet next to the pools, which workers cleared with slabs of plywood.
Raha nodded to the history of daredevil stunts established by Knievel and continued by Evel’s family.
“I’m thinking of the Knievel family, who started this off in ’67, and all the legends in the past that have done this,” Raha said. “When I was a kid, I could only think of being in this profession. So to be here now, I am very honored.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykatson X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.