A Coastguard boat was launched, a helicopter searched from the air, while the surf lifesavers put three IRB boats along with nine lifeguards into the water.
However, the search was scaled back after 5pm when surf lifeguards pulled their boats out.
Family and friends of the boy are this evening scouring Taylor's Mistake – the next bay south, where a strong ocean drift is heading in the nor-west winds – and around rocks at Scarborough.
They are disappointed with the call to abandon the rescue today with so many daylight hours left.
"I'm not going home until he's home," said the boy's elder sister.
Another friend of the family said: "We're pretty p***** off. Why aren't they out there looking for him?"
The boy and his friend travelled from Linwood to Sumner this afternoon for a swim on a teacher's only day at school.
His sister says he usually goes to New Brighton Beach.
She described him as a "great swimmer".
About 4pm, a police officer knocked at their family home in Linwood.
They rushed to the beach where there was a large rescue effort.
"It's a bit of a shock to the family," said the sister.
The friend who was swimming with the lost boy did not want to talk when approached this evening.
A spokesman for the Sumner Surf Life Saving Club said there was a southerly drift in the warm, blustery nor-west wind that had pushed the teens about 150m down the beach.
The drift on the outgoing tide had got a few beachgoers into trouble this summer, he said.
The Coastguard referred enquiries to police who were also at the scene.
