‘Splash the water and scream’: The Bondi Beach paddle-out ceremony marks healing of community

• Follow our live coverage of the Bondi shooting here.

Across the world, when a surfer dies, the community returns to the ocean for a paddle-out.

Holding hands in a circle while sitting on boards, tributes are often made before surfers splash water and cheer. On Friday morning, hundreds, if not thousands, took to the water to mourn the 15 people killed in Sunday night’s terror attack.

Their screams, whistles and roars could be heard from the shore, where Jews prayed on the beach, and hundreds of people watched the breathtaking scene. It marks the start of healing in Bondi, where life is settling into a new normal but grief remains heavy.

Olympians Jess Fox, Ian Thorpe and Steve Solomon were among the athletes to visit the memorial in the morning and lay flowers.

“I’m a local, and it’s hard on everyone, but particularly the Jewish community,” Thorpe said, holding back tears.

“Two of our most proud identities: the Australian, which we share with the whole country, and then we have the Olympic identity as well, where we represent the country,” said Solomon, who is Jewish. “It’s the first time I, and many others, have felt ashamed of Australia.

“Moments like this, coming in together, connecting, vowing for change, vowing for improvements and prosperity as a community and a country, is what gives us hope to put on the uniform as we have today.”

“It shouldn’t take a tragedy to bring people together,” Fox, who is also Jewish, said, in tears.

Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt was at the Chanukah by the Sea on Sunday when the gunmen began firing at the crowd, and said today’s prayer marked a step towards healing.

“We pray three times a day, and today we were just doing prayers to bring healing to the space that has been contaminated with evil and hate, and just trying to uplift and pray for the souls and people,” he said.

Tributes flowed upon the footbridge from which gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram fired indiscriminately on the Chanukah by the Sea celebration.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley earlier walked across the footbridge, where there is a tribute chalk drawing of a completely lit menorah, a visitation stone, flowers and a sticker and drawing of a bee for 10-year-old Matilda, who was killed in the shooting.

The words: “The people of Israel live, may their memorial be a blessing” are written on the walls in front of the chalk drawing.

“I wasn’t prepared for the feelings that hit me when I crossed the bridge,” Ley said. “I saw that bridge on television the night that it happened, and like all Australians, I was in shock and horror.”

“Then I heard directly from people who sheltered under that bridge and saw the gunmen, and will never be able to walk through this part of Bondi again without all of those feelings coming back.”

On the beachside sits a Volkswagen Golf with bullet holes running through the back windscreen through to the front, an eerie remnant of Sunday night.

More Bondi terror coverage

Spartan and small: This is the dusty Philippine hotel room where Bondi gunmen holed up for a month

Hero cop identified: A Bondi-based detective with more than 15 years in the force, fired at the gunmen from about 40 metres away

Anthony Albanese had a choice to make: Angry about the Bondi massacre, the prime minister has laid out a plan to fight antisemitism

Bondi shooter interviewed by ASIO: In about 2021, one of the Bondi gunmen was placed on a ‘known entity management list’