Hundreds of people have gathered at a remote beach on South Australia's west coast in honour of shark attack victim Lance Appleby. The paddle out event was a chance for the local community to come together and mourn the death of the much-loved character who was taken by a shark in early January. A memorial service will be held at Streaky Bay on Monday.
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00:00Joined by hands, and by grief, an entire community united in mourning.
00:12Hundreds gathered at Granite's Beach to honour 28-year-old Lance Appleby, who was attacked
00:17by a shark while surfing there on the 2nd of January.
00:23Because I know the sort of mark he made everywhere he went, and I know he just made everyone
00:27feel incredible, so it's obviously amazing seeing this turn out, but yeah, it doesn't
00:32surprise me one bit because he was an amazing human.
00:35Many who attended the Paddle Out event had a personal connection to Mr Appleby, who grew
00:40up on South Australia's west coast.
00:44Some brought flowers, many brought their surfboards, creating a moving tribute in the sea and on
00:50the sand.
00:51He just made everyone feel larger and better and bigger, and you could almost feel that
00:57everyone today was making each other feel that exact same sort of emotion and feeling,
01:02and that's just the legacy and mark he leaves behind.
01:05It's a part of the coastline that held special significance to Mr Appleby and so many of
01:10his mates.
01:12We got each other into surfing, or I got him into surfing when we were quite young, early
01:16teenage years, and yeah, it never stopped.
01:19Every summer holidays we'd always be so excited to come back here and link up and share the
01:24ocean together.
01:25And now a sombre reason to share the ocean in his memory.
01:29A memorial service will be held at Streaky Bay on Monday.