"I jumped up over the security fence and ran down to the end of the jetty and there was one guy in the water struggling pretty badly. "His mate was panicking." That's when Mr Dennis spotted the Esky. "He had two Eskies, so I tipped out the contents of the small one, put the lid back on, locked it and threw it to the guy. "I don't know if he saw it or not but it went straight past him."

As the man continued to struggle to stay afloat, Mr Dennis stripped down to his jocks, grabbed the second Esky and dived into the water. "By that stage he was really stuffed. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, I had to hang on to the Esky at the same time otherwise we would have both sunk. "He didn't say anything, he was just breathing out water and blood out of his nose and mouth. He was spluttering like he was already full of water." To add to the complications, Mr Dennis said the man's friend had tried to help by using his fishing line to reel him in, resulting in the man getting tangled in fishing line. "I snapped the line because the tide was grabbing us and dragging us under. We kept drifting down, I tried my hardest to get his head out of the water, telling him to breathe.

"I had one hand on the handle of the Esky pushing it down to keep the air in it and the other hand holding him up." Struggling to keep the man above water with one hand, Mr Dennis attempted to move the Esky between his legs, but the air bubble escaped, filling the Esky with water. They both "started to sink down". "It was just terrible, he was really dying. "He passed out and kept rolling around. I was just trying to keep him above water and not knowing if anyone was going to get us."

The whole incident lasted about five minutes, but Mr Dennis said it "seemed like forever". Two local men, Chris Chudmore and Vaughan Platt, just happened to be in the area and jumped into action after hearing Mr Dennis's calls for help. "I just screamed for help and then within a minute or two, Chris had gone round to the boat ramp and jumped in Vaughan's boat. "We managed to grab hands, Chris went over the boat pulled me up and then then the three of us had to get the guy into the boat." But the saga didn't end there.

The men called Triple-0 for instructions, rolling the man on his side on the boat ramp and clearing his airway. "He kept expelling water and blood out of his nose. He wasn't in control, it was just flowing out of him," Mr Dennis said. "The ambulance was probably about five to 10 minutes away when he started to breathe again." Scenes of jubilation followed as the man slowly regained consciousness. "His mate managed to come round to the boat ramp, he saw this guy out of it and then come back to life, he was just so relieved and so happy to see his friend had been saved.

"He gave us a cuddle and was crying, it made me tear up as well, it was pretty emotional stuff." Ambulance Victoria confirmed paramedics attended the scene at 7.22pm on Sunday. "Paramedics arrived to a boat ramp and found a man, aged in his 60s, who had reportedly fallen into the water," an Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said. "Bystanders at the scene informed paramedics that another man had entered the water to help keep the man afloat. "The man was treated for hypothermia and taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition."

After the ambulance drove away, Mr Dennis went straight back to work at the Saltwater venue, which he is hoping to open in February next year. "I just went back to work pouring the concrete, I had some windows coming the next day so I had to." Mr Dennis said the man's friend had visited him at work during the week to thank him. "He called me yesterday too, just to say thanks so much. The guy who went into the water is still in hospital."



