The chances of recovering the 19-year-old's body for burial were now at the mercy of the ocean.

The Blacktown-based family had maintained a daily vigil at Wollongong's City Beach, where Mr Koffa is believed to have drowned after being caught in a rip on Sunday night.

The constant presence of a police command post and regular sweeps by PolAir and the Bendigo Bank Aerial Parol provided a semblance of hope that perhaps a miracle might come.

But at midday yesterday the search was called off and the family was left to grieve alone on the beach.

Mr Koffa's cousin Augustina Teah, 30, said her family was devastated.

"We are crushed. It's like a nightmare, a bad dream that you can't wake up from.

"My grandmother is in hospital. She took it real bad. She is really depressed. Patrick was her favourite grandson."

Police considered the possibility Mr Koffa's body was taken by a shark. Two bull sharks were seen in the area on Tuesday.

Mrs Teah said the family hoped Mr Koffa's body would be returned so he could be given a full burial.

"We are a Christian family. Patrick went to the Lighthouse Church at Fairfield on Sunday, before he came here. He loves the church.

"We want to bury him. We can't lose hope that we will find the body, that we will see him again."

Mr Koffa's family escaped Liberia in 1996 following a civil war during which his parents disappeared. He spent time at a refugee camp in Ghana before being taken in by his aunt and uncle in Australia.