Picture: Big Sunday delivers 30-year monsters

Only the bravest or the foolish tackled monster swells which pounded Sydney's ocean beaches yesterday.

Whipped up by a deep low over the Tasman Sea, wave faces on some reef breaks soared an epic 9m - the biggest surf in 30 years to hit the New South Wales coast.

One man was missing last night after going fishing on an exposed breakwater off south-west Sydney and a dozen thrillseekers were pulled from boiling surf at popular beaches, most of which were closed.