A coastal vigil by distraught friends and family of a teenage boy feared dead after going swimming at a Christchurch beach two days ago will continue until he is found.

Jack Sutton, 14, disappeared while swimming with a mate at popular Scarborough Beach at Sumner around 3.20pm on Monday.

The Linwood College pupil's family and friends have scoured the rocks, cliffs, and shoreline around the beach, and around Scarborough Heads to Taylor's Mistake since the official search and rescue operation was postponed at around 5pm on Monday.

They have been taken out on the water by locals, while other residents have used jet skis and kayaks to look for the missing boy.

Police last night said it was a body recovery operation and are providing support to the family who have been disappointed and angry at the official search efforts.

A Givealittle crowdfunding campaign launched to raise cash to put a light aircraft up to help look for Sutton has so far raised nearly $7000.

Sutton's elder sister Magenta Sutton told the Herald: "I'm not going home until he's home."

A gazebo has been raised at the Scarborough boat ramp, with beanbags, water and food to help sustain the bereft loved ones.

They are continuing to search in the area this afternoon.

Police say around 20 volunteers and police staff are searching for Sutton.

They will "reassess the plan going forward and any update will be shared proactively".

Sutton had gone to the beach on Monday with a friend on a teachers' only day from school.

His sister said he was a "great swimmer" who usually enjoyed New Brighton Beach.

At about 4pm Monday, 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 in the choppy water has joined the search over the last two days.

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.