Edgartown selectmen yesterday commended three South Beach lifeguards for saving the life of a bather at the right fork on July 18.

John McMahon, 55, from Braintree was swimming in high waves when he was knocked into the seabed, injuring his spine. He was unconscious and bleeding from the head when David Espindle, 20, and William Reagan, 18, reached him.

He had been swimming with some friends when they noticed him floating motionless. Mr. Espindle and Mr. Reagan saw people motioning for help from the lifeguard stand and ran to the shore to find Mr. McMahon being pulled from the water.

“Your first thought is, this man’s dead,” said Mr. Espindle, in his third year as a South Beach lifeguard. “The second thought is to do what you’re trained to do. What you practiced last week.”

Mr. Espindle agreed that training they received from beach director Kirsten Meehan was key to their handling the situation.

“It’s definitely scary, but you have to keep your composure,” he said.

Ms. Meehan, 25, soon joined the two lifeguards at the scene. The team checked Mr. McMahon’s pulse and spine, strapped on a neck brace and began to administrator CPR.

A call went out to the Edgartown ambulance at 3:39 p.m.

Several cycles of CPR had been administered when patrolman Joel DeRoche arrived to see a man on his side breathing in labored gasps.

“He was having great difficulty breathing, CPR was in progress. Rescue breathing was initiated,” said Mr. DeRoche yesterday. The police used apparatus from their medical kit to provide oxygen to Mr. McMahon.

The ambulance arrived shortly afterwards and Mr. McMahon was transferred to a long board and driven slowly from the beach in a beach department all-terrain vehicle to a waiting ambulance.

He was taken to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and from there to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he is currently undergoing rehabilitation.

The three lifeguards received praise and certificates of commendation from selectmen yesterday.

“You used your training and as a result you saved a man’s life,” selectman Margaret Serpa said.

After the meeting, Ms. Meehan said that performing the rescue feels good only because it was effective, remembering an incident three years ago with a different outcome.

“It was a similar procedure and the man was speaking at the scene, but he didn’t make it past the hospital.”

Mr. Espindle agreed.

“It feels awesome now that he’s going to be all right,” he said.