As he stood silently facing the waves on the Bondi shoreline, arm in arm with nearly 1,000 other lifesavers, Lockie Cook let himself feel the pain of the community\u2019s most traumatic week in living memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that guard\u2019s just dropping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Surf lifesavers gathered in their hundreds on Saturday morning to observe two minutes\u2019 silence and remember those killed in Sunday\u2019s attack<\/a> on a Hanukah festival.<\/p>\n Babies, grandparents, neighbours and schoolmates clad in red-and-yellow uniforms held each other, forming a line stretching from the crescent-shaped beach\u2019s northern edge toward its southern tip.<\/p>\n Lockie Cook (centre) stands with other volunteer lifeguards on Bondi beach. Photograph: Andrew Quilty<\/p>\n Nestled between members of the beach\u2019s north and central clubs stood lifesavers who were there on Sunday evening \u2013 including Cook and his four-year-old son, who he had sheltered when the north Bondi club end-of-year party was interrupted by gunfire and screams.<\/p>\n When the shooting stopped, Cook ran to the homes of other club members to tell their families they were alive and saving the lives of others.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big thing that\u2019s come out of this is just how much this community means to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our church \u2026 It\u2019s just important we reconnect and really heal.\u201d<\/p>\n At 8.15am, the two minutes\u2019 silence was announced by a man at the beach\u2019s central lifeguard post, behind which lie rows of flowers.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo minutes can be a very long time but please look within,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHold hands with the person next to you, close your eyes and think about the families affected so we can grow back stronger for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n Lifesavers looked down or to the horizon as locals, beachgoers and dignitaries watched on. All that could be heard were waves on the shore, a lone dog\u2019s bark and a whirring rescue helicopter, which flew along the shore as the silence lifted.<\/p>\n Community members observe two minutes\u2019 silence. Photograph: Andrew Quilty<\/p>\n Friends and families slowly turned to embrace each other and applaud their colleagues at the opposite end of the beach as cheers rose from the watching crowd.<\/p>\n This was just the latest instance of the lifesavers working to unite the community this week, said one man, a Jewish member of the north club and a first responder on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cToday I just feel the love and support,\u201d said the man, who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n At 42 years of age, he has lived at Bondi nearly all his life. He joined the swim on Monday and has worked to reclaim the beach as his own in the week since.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like taking ownership back, it\u2019s cathartic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Gene Ross, a longtime lifesaving teacher, spent the moments\u2019 silence standing by his son, recently qualified, reflecting on the unity his club had shown every day since Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cChoosing to do the attack here \u2026 invited Australia to come and support the [Jewish] people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re here for everybody and that\u2019s the ethos of surf livesaving.\u2019 Photograph: Andrew Quilty<\/p>\n Hundreds of lifesavers laughed and cried together as they walked back towards their clubs and through the park where their colleagues saved lives on Sunday.<\/p>\n Dozens more stayed on the shore, ready to come to the aid of people returning to the water.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here for everybody and that\u2019s the ethos of surf livesaving,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we do as lifesavers: we run to the danger.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline<\/a> on 13 11 14, and Griefline<\/a> on 1300 845 745. In the UK, the charity Mind<\/a> is available on 0300 123 3393. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As he stood silently facing the waves on the Bondi shoreline, arm in arm with nearly 1,000 other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-359557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}