Cody Kelpin of Porter Creek died this week, at just 18 years old.

Kelpin crashed his motorcycle in Porter Creek on Monday afternoon.

He was pronounced dead on Wednesday evening in St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, surrounded by his parents, cousins and family friends.

His death happened suddenly and tragically.

At about 12:45 p.m. Monday, Kelpin was speeding down 12th Avenue in Porter Creek, "popping wheelies” and possibly, as friends suggest, racing a passing car.

Soon afterward, he lost control of his bike, slid across a patch of grass and was tossed to the pavement.

He landed in a woman's driveway, 80 metres away. His helmet lay nearby.

"He was basically dead on impact,” Kelpin's second cousin, Marina Lavidas told the Star this week. "When they found him, his heart had stopped. They brought him back.”

Kelpin was known to neighbours and city officials. His first major mishap was in September 2010 on a Porter Creek trail, when he demolished his bike in a collision with a city barricade. There were other accidents as well.

Kelpin was medevaced to Vancouver on Monday evening. Seventy-two hours and two examinations later, he was deemed brain dead.

It is difficult to imagine the loss the death of a child brings.

Kelpin was the only child of Madonna Joncas and Charlie Kelpin.

"Madonna is a server,” said Lavidas. "Every day, she'd wake up at 6 a.m. and make Cody lunch. She still did his laundry, at 18; that's how much she cared about him.”

Joncas and Kelpin stayed side-by-side with their son for three days before he died.

"She lost her baby, and she was the most amazing mother in the world,” said Lavidas. "They had a bond like you could never imagine.”

Before they left Whitehorse for Vancouver, Joncas made the family drive to the scene of the tragedy so she could see it one more time, said Lavidas.

After his family, Kelpin's death will likely be felt most by his friends.

Porter Creek kids spend the summers on quads and dirt bikes and the winters on snow machines. They are shared experiences that create a lasting friendship.

"I lived on Cedar Street and Tory lived out in MacPherson but he would ride out to see Cody,” said Curtis Harder, Kelpin's best friend.

"Scotty lived on Holly Hill and Mason lived down the street from me. We were the Porter Creek hooligans, basically,” he says laughing.

Harter remembers Kelpin as "a kid who was good at everything,” a natural athlete who could "fix anything with a motor.”

"He's a kid who would give you the shirt off his back,” says Harder. "He just liked to live on the edge, but he definitely cared about everyone else around him.”

Kelpin's friends speak of him with a kind of respect that borders on reverence.

"One time my friend had a four-wheeler which was buried in three feet of snow,” said Harder. "He just tied a rope to it, wrapped the rope around his arms and just leaned back and pulled it out. Our buddy was like, ‘How'd he do that?' and I said, ‘I don't know; the kid's a monster. It's just Cody.”

"He was pretty jacked,” said Tory Steele, another of Kelpin's closest friends. "He had big hands and he was generally just a big kid.”

"And his hands were never clean,” said Harder. "They were always black from working on something.”

Steele and Harder were among the few people to see Kelpin in Whitehorse General Hospital before the medevac.

Despite his history, neither boy expected the accident to take Kelpin's life.

"It's a surprise. I thought he'd pull through. He was a tough kid, so it's still setting in, but it's definitely a surprise because, like I said, it's not the first time he'd crashed,” said Steele.

"But it's not if you're going to crash, it's when you're going to crash,” added Harder. "Everyone knows that.”

The two said they will remember singing basement karaoke with Kelpin, night rides through the bush and canoeing together in Porter Creek ponds.

They laughed while trying to describe the group of them trying to sneak a neighbour's canoe down the street in the middle of the night.

"One thing that was good about hanging out with Cody was that he never drank or did drugs or anything,” he said. "I'll miss his adventures. He kept us busy and entertained and out of trouble.”

Both of the youth said they will continue to ride, adding that though they already wear safety equipment, they will continue to do so.

Kelpin has left more than just memories behind.

Harder said Kelpin was expecting a child with his girlfriend of four years.

"We are not sure if it's a boy or a girl,” said Harder. "She's hoping for a boy and wants to name it Cody. But if it's a girl, she'll name it Chloe, because that's what Cody wanted.”

The family also donated several of Kelpin's organs.

"His parents decided he would be an organ donor,” said Lavidas. "The only blessing in this situation is they were able to use his heart, and it will be given to someone else.

"He was only 18 and he didn't drink or do drugs, so he'll be running around again somewhere. His heart is still beating; he was able to give life,” she says.

Today, Lavidas and Joncas will place a wreath at the site of the accident.

A spiritual service was performed for Kelpin in his Vancouver hospital room, and the family is planning a public funeral for the coming week.