PAPAKOLEA — Gjino Kanahele, who at 14 years old was too young to legally operate a moped on public streets when he lost control and was killed on a winding road Sunday, had been riding the vehicles for years, relatives and friends said.

"It wasn't that he always didn't wear his helmet," said his aunt, Daisy Nasau. "It wouldn't have prevented his death. He knew how to be safe. He was an experienced bike rider. He went out doing what he loved, what he liked."

Friends and family stopped yesterday to give their condolences and well wishes at the home of Kanahele's grandmother, where he lived on Na'ale Street in Papakolea. Halloween decorations fluttered in the breeze outside.

"Our community is really close," said Joshua Solatorio, who lives across the street. "Gjino was a really good kid. He was kolohe (a rascal)."

Some relatives had returned from a roadside memorial they erected on Kaukonahua Road in Waialua.

Kanahele and his brother, Taurus, 15, were part of a 60-member Halloween moped cruise Sunday from Papakolea to the North Shore, police said.

While on Kaukonahua Road about 1:30 p.m., Kanahele lost control, crashed into the guard rail and was thrown from his moped.

He was taken to Kapi'olani Medical Center at Pali Momi. His brother crashed into him and was injured, but was treated and released. He was at home yesterday with scratches and bruises, Nasau said.

Kaukonahua Road is nicknamed Snake Road because its two lanes have many curves.

Nasau and Solatorio were in a car driving from the Windward side to meet the moped riders somewhere in between for a picnic.

"Gjino was an experienced rider," Nasau said. "It was nothing for him to go on long rides like this."

Relatives said Kanahele would regularly go to Kahuku to ride at a dirt-bike track. Whether it was a bicycle or a moped, Kanahele spent most of his life around wheels, Nasau said.

"I was just two minutes behind him," said Shane Yuen, Kanahele's uncle, who was on a moped with the group. "Riding mopeds and bikes was nothing new to him."

The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office said Kanahele died of multiple internal injuries from the moped crash.

Yesterday, the boy's football coach stopped by his home while the family had gone to Waialua to erect a memorial at the crash site.

"He was a big-hearted kid," said Shane McShane, coach of a team called the Hawaii Young Warriors. "Honestly, he was a troubled kid, but he was starting to turn his life around. He was like my son."

The Kanahele brothers had both attended Roosevelt High School, although at the time of his death, Gjino Kanahele had been at Ho'okupono, an alternative public school, said Tim Hill, Roosevelt's ninth- and 10th-grade counselor. The boys were well-known and well-liked, with an older brother and sister who had attended Roosevelt.

Roosevelt students put up poster paper on which students wrote condolences. The poster will be given to the boys' family.

Twenty to 25 students also attended a group counseling session yesterday morning in the library and others spoke individually to counselors, Hill said.

"A lot of their close friends have known them from small-kid time," he said. "In the community, they all see each other. It's a shock to them. A lot of them just talked to Gjino Saturday and then he passed away. They just saw him."

Hill said Taurus was "a mellow kid who's more to himself. I visited Gjino at Ho'okupono. Where Taurus is more to himself, Gjino was more outgoing. They were both into mopeds and stuff like that."

Roosevelt High School counselor Terry Malterre said students wrote messages to the family and to Gjino, telling him that they'll miss him.

"We talked to the students in small groups and had the talk about good memories of Gjino to find out what they were feeling and then we did a moment of silence in his memory," Malterre said.

Gjino also attended Stevenson Middle School, where several students who knew him were talking to counselors and staff about his death yesterday, said vice principal Christina Alfred.

"The two boys were very well-known in the community," Alfred said. "They had a lot of friends, a lot of neighborhood boys they would go around with."

Gjino was mechanically inclined and "liked to take things apart," Alfred said.

Tomorrow, Stevenson staff will focus on the accident through the school's adviser/advisee period, in which groups of 12 to 15 students talk to advisers about specific issues.

"The reality is sinking in that somebody they knew will not be there," Alfred said. "For them, it's like, 'Wow. This is real.'"

Neighbors of Kanahele said the community is rife with teens on mopeds. Some of the machines are loud, without mufflers, and are souped up to go faster, Solatorio said. "When it's late, at 2 a.m., it upsets the kupuna here. But most of us just accept it."

Resident Butch Ramos said teens ride their loud mopeds up and down the streets of Papakolea.

"Some of the kids are a hazard, pulling wheelies and doing tricks, standing on their bikes, or riding with one leg off the bike. It's a big problem in our community."

But Kanahele wasn't among those kids, Nasau said.

Underage moped riding is not considered a major problem by Honolulu police, said Capt. Frank Fujii, Honolulu Police Department spokesman.

"But we encourage people who see someone riding a moped they believe to be underage to call us — use 911," Fujii said. "It may save a life. Call us and report it, even if you see someone riding a moped in an unsafe manner. The real sad thing is some young adult got himself killed. It seems like it takes a death like this to take notice."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.