More than 100 people gathered at a south Charlotte church to remember Don Nicholas, the Charlotte CEO who disappeared during a surfing trip in Fiji last summer.

High school classmates, a former NFL player and the mother of Nicholas' infant daughter talked about the man they knew as driven and competitive but also giving and sweet.

Nicholas, the founder and CEO of Ballantyne-area company Revita Aging Center, disappeared during a surfing trip in Fiji after he faced waves a boat captain with him said hit the island only once a decade.

No signs of Nicholas were found after the six-day search by the U.S. embassy and police - and the informal search that involved relatives, Fijian villagers and a spirit guide.

On Sunday, those close to him told stories of the gregarious fitness buff with an easy smile who would slip out of parties to lift weights and who decided to run triathlons on a whim.

They saw pictures of his active lifestyle - giving a thumbs up while skydiving, dripping wet after a swim, hugging his young niece.

And they spoke of the man they say encouraged them to take big risks in pursuit of success.

His girlfriend, Litsa Kapantais, spoke of meeting him at Starbucks and falling in love, then giving birth to his daughter.

"Exactly three months after he went to be with God, he made me a mother," she said. "She's so beautiful. She looks just like him. ... I may be separated from my love physically, but we will be together forever."

The conditions were rough in Fiji when Nicholas - who swam in high school and college and had been a lifeguard - decided to venture out last July. On the second day of his vacation, he broke two boogie boards due to rough conditions.

On the third day, he joined a surf safari with a boat captain, a friend and a guide at Natadola reef, about a quarter of a mile offshore, Kapantais told the Observer. The guide warned the friends that the waves were unusually rough that day, and that they'd have to surf at their own risk. Nicholas and his friend were soon trapped and battered by a series of large waves. They both went underwater. When his friend came up, he didn't see Nicholas.