Surf life savers have issued a warning for New Year's beachgoers after a horror spate of holiday drownings in NSW.
There have been at least 14 water fatalities in the state since Christmas Day, with three deaths and two other bodies found on Friday alone.
Surf Life Saving NSW Acting CEO Adam Weir is urging everyone heading to the beach to swim between the flags and not enter the water under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
"We are extremely concerned about the run of tragedies in the last week and implore people taking to the water to be very careful," Mr Weir said on Friday.
"Lifesavers and lifeguards are out in force but we need the public to take some responsibility for their own safety."
A 27-year-old Pakistani man, who had reportedly been living in Canberra, died after he was pulled from Mermaid Pools in Sydney's southwestern outskirts on Friday afternoon.
The death came a few hours after a 46-year-old died after he was pulled unresponsive from water at Yamba in northern NSW about 2pm.
The death of an elderly man pulled from Lady Robinsons Beach in Sydney's south was confirmed by police before 8pm.
NSW drownings since Christmas Eve are now more than double the state's road toll for the same period.
An agonising wait for the family of 14-year-old Tui Gallaher came to an end at Sydney's crowded Maroubra Beach on Friday, when a body believed to be the teenager's was recovered by emergency services.
Tui went missing while swimming with his cousin about 8.30pm on Thursday.
"Don't worry he's resting is God's arms right now. Love you, Aunty," Katrina Fonuku Tamano Gallaher posted on Facebook.
"Truly sorry to hear of your tragedy but he is resting in God's arms now at peace and the love people have for such a beautiful gentle young man will shine brightly," Billie Jean said.
Further south, a body, believed to be that of a man who went missing in the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga, was found near where a man disappeared on Wednesday.
