Carson Messinger’s smile, goofy personality and jokes will be remembered by friends and family. The Ridgeview High School graduated was an avid outdoorsman and burgeoning member of the Redmond motorcycling community.

Messinger, 19, died July 23 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident the previous day.

According to friends, Messinger recently got into motorcycles and had made friends in the local biking community.

Messinger met Courtnee Lunsford just three weeks ago at Moto Monday, a casual social gathering for new and experienced motorcycle riders. Messinger also met Lunsford’s uncle, Jonathan Lewis, at the gathering. The two hit it off.

“We were talking about motorcycles and he showed up on his, which was beautiful,” Lewis said. “There’s not many of them in town and my best friend has the exact same motorcycle … Once we made that connection, I mean, it was almost like we’ve known each other for years.”

Lewis said he was drawn to Messinger’s sense of humor.

“He was a goof, just telling jokes,” Lunsford said.

“He’d make fun of things that you can’t even make fun of just to get somebody to smile and do a double take, like ‘What? What did you just say?,’ Anything to kind of light up a mood.”

Lunsford said she joked about stealing Messinger’s motorcycle, a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14, that she and Lewis admired. She described it as a “beautiful, purple” bike with purple headlights.

According to Lunsford, Messinger wanted to deepen his connections in the biking community. He wanted to plan a ride with them this coming weekend.

After his death, the crew said they wanted to keep their promise. So they scheduled a ride in his honor July 27. The group met at General Duffy’s Waterhole where the ride began before heading past the Messinger family home and over to his favorite fishing spots at Tetherow Crossing Park. Bikers then hopped on the highway and visited Lake Billy Chinook, another of Messinger’s favorite fishing holes. The ride ended at Ridgeview High, Messinger’s alma mater, where he played football.

“He was an avid fisherman and avid outdoorsman,” Lewis said. “He loved being out in the woods and doing things along those lines.”

Lewis also said Messinger liked working on projects with his dad in their garage — tinkering on motors and motorcycles or just fixing things around the house. Lunsford said Messinger also loved spending time with friends and brought one to the most recent Moto Monday to introduce him to the group.

“(Messinger) had an energy that didn’t compare to anyone,” Lunsford said, adding that he was a little shy at first, “but once you got to know him, you wanted to just keep talking to him.”

Lunsford and Lewis mentioned that for new riders like Messinger or more experienced ones, it’s important to be safe. Not only should cars be aware of motorcyclists, but motorcyclists should also take notice of the “road cages” around them, which Lunsford said is a term cyclists refer to cars.

“Life is not always a rush,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t have to be.”