Teen killed in crash remembered for big heart
Colvin raced across country at young age
Ryder Colvin had made the jump on his dirt bike many times before. However, this time, during a Feb. 9 practice ride, he went over the bars while landing at the bottom of the jump.
The 19-year-old Las Vegas resident was riding at Mesquite Motocross located just over the Nevada border in Littlefield, Arizona, with a small group of riders when he crashed and later died.
His mother, Monica Colvin, said another rider’s mom who is an emergency room nurse was at his side within seconds and was followed by his dad, Lance Colvin. They performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived and continued life-saving measures.
“They worked on him and did CPR on him,” Monica Colvin said. “It seemed like an eternity to me but it was probably about an hour.”
Ryder Colvin’s parents grew up around dirt bikes and got their son involved in the sport from a young age. His mother said she has photos of her son on a small quad when he was 2 years old.
Not long after that he started racing competitively and entered races across the country.
One of Ryder’s competitors shared an insight with Monica Colvin about her son. “He always looked forward to lining up with him because Ryder always would give him fist bumps on the starting line,” he told her. “And he was, like, and no one does that. No one else does that.”
She said her son graduated from Las Vegas High School in 2022 and had the goal of becoming a firefighter.
“His heart was just his biggest asset, I think,” Monica Colvin said. “It just doesn’t seem fair to take away somebody that shared so much love and had so much care for everybody.”
Ryder Colvin would give his mom a hard time about being an only child, but Monica Colvin would tell her son’s friends that he chose each of them to be his brothers and sisters.
“He loves his friends so much and he’s made so many friendships everywhere, all over the country and other countries just through riding and I just want everyone to be positive for him,” she said. “He would not want people to be sad.”
A tribute was held in Colvin’s honor Saturday at Mesquite Motorcross, according to his mom.