I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but I hope we all realize that we're not invincible. You never know when your time's up, so live each day to the fullest.
I ride wheelies and a few stunts for Me, it's just something I've been doing for 20 something years now that I've always loved(we all have something that we love to do). I do it to impress no one(maybe the occasional chicks in my single days
) when I'm out by myself, that's what I'm doing. When my freinds and I ride, that's what we're doing. If someone else wants to watch, or gets a kick out of it, I'm happy to oblidge. I still like to watch other folks stunt too.
From the sound of things, your friend died doing what he loved to do...we should all be so fortunate.