NSW storms: Hope fades for American missing off Bondi

A high school football star who went swimming in surging seas off Bondi on Monday is still missing.

Endicott Ackerman, left, changed into board shorts before leaping into the ocean.

A high school football star who went swimming in surging seas off Bondi on Monday is still missing, with the search for the 20-year-old American halted at dusk yesterday after police earlier pulled the body of a woman from the ocean a few kilometres north.

Endicott Ackerman, from Fairfax, Virginia, who is studying at the University of Sydney, changed into board shorts before leaping into the ocean at 2.30pm on Monday, witness reported.

He was seen struggling briefly against the pounding waves before being swept away. An intensive search by Marine Area Command, Police Rescue, PolAir, the Westpac helicopter and Bondi lifeguards failed to find any sign of him yesterday.

His social media accounts include highlights of his football ­career at Robinson High School, from which he graduated in 2014.

Police yesterday pulled a body from the sea, 100m offshore from Dover Heights, near Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. A police spokesman was last night unable to say how the woman came to be in the ocean and she had not been formally identified.

At nearby Coogee, anxious surf lifesavers on Monday faced a sleepless night as king tides battered their historic club building for a second consecutive night, tearing bricks from the walls and blowing out windows.

But they woke to find the ­efforts of emergency services workers, who shored-up the foundations, had saved the century-old clubhouse.

Earlier, there had been fears the building would have to be ­demolished.

But club president Mark Doepell said “the structural integrity of the club is fine’’.

“It’s a huge relief for the members but now begins the hard task of rebuilding, and we’re looking for all the support we can get from everybody,’’ he said.

Mr Doepell, who stayed awake all night watching the waves ­hammer the clubhouse, thanked firefighters, police and SES volunteers.

“When I went down there on Monday morning at 5am I had no idea what to do first,’’ he said. “I could not take in the enormity of the damage, and within 24 hours we had the best of the best do work that saved our clubhouse,”

Mr Doepell said rescue boards, rescue tubes, outboard engines and first-aid equipment had been lost at a cost of many thousands of dollars.

“We’re still digging the sand out from where the equipment was stored. The better part of it will be smashed up,’’ he said.

He said he hoped insurance would foot the bill but “we’re desperately dealing with financial ­issues. This is supposed to be our off-season and the challenge for us is to get surf life savers back on the beach for when the flags go up at the start of the season in just eight weeks.

“We’ve got a 109-year history of no lives lost between the flags. We’re being tried and tested but we’re up for the challenge. We will rebuild.”