Fears for teen's life after second day of searching off Coffs Harbour ends

A second day of searching for a 17 year old missing off the NSW coast has ended without any luck.

Ali Mosawi was swimming with friends when they became caught in a rip off Pebbly Beach near Coffs Harbour.

With another week of holidays to go, lifesavers are pleading with swimmers to be careful in the water.

The painstaking search resumed at first light as a police helicopter scanned from above while search teams battled tough conditions.

Acting inspector Matt Zimmer said rough surf had not helped.

“We have swell in excess of two metres and the conditions close to shore are quite treacherous,” he said.

Ali’s distraught family watched on as hopes faded for the 17 year old, missing for more than 24 hours by Sunday evening.

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“He’s a good kid, he’s really humble, you know? Yeah, he’s a good kid,” cousin Ahmed al Ali said.

The Liverpool teenager was on a camping trip near Coffs Harbour when he and four others ran into trouble on Saturday afternoon.

“From what we’ve been told, five of them, the five of them weren’t very good swimmers,” Surf Lifesaving NSW duty officer Les Pepper said.

The beach is unpatrolled and isolated.

“They came to the beach just to have fun, you know, have a quiet laugh and there’s no one around to help them or give them a hand,” Ahmed said.

Three made their way to safety while another boy was taken to hospital and is now in a stable condition.

The search comes just a day after a young man drowned at Palm Beach.