Bystanders Rescue Teen From Deadly Riptide

INSIDE EDITION speaks with citizen rescuers who saved a teenager caught in a fierce riptide, just in the nick-of-time.

In heart-stopping video a swimmer is seen being slammed into the rocks by monster surf.

"He's right there! He's right there! He's behind you! He's going in the cave!" exclaimed a bystander in the video.

The swimmer was 19-years-old.  He was unconscious and at the mercy of vicious waves, moments from drowning.

It happened at Sacred Cove, a popular destination in Rancho Palos Verdes just south of Los Angeles. When the teenager jumped onto the jagged rocks, the surf was so strong that he was soon in serious trouble.

That's when 46-year-old Gary Golding sprang into action. He actually went into the raging water.

Golding told INSIDE EDITION, "I'm in there fighting for my life and I can't grab him, because I can tell there's not even... keeping my own head above water."

Watch the Heart-Stopping Video

In the video, Golding can be seen clinging to rocks as the teenager is tossed about like a piece of debris.

The extraordinary video was recorded by Hillary Swanson, who had a Go-Pro camera strapped to her chest.

"It felt like an eternity. It felt so long like it was never ending," Swanson told INSIDE EDITION.

Golding had to give up to save himself. He somehow pulled himself out of the water. It was then that his friend Robert McNulty decided to make a last-gasp dive into the ocean. Thankfully, he reached the teenager, who was floating face down in the surf.

McNulty told INSIDE EDITION, "I just dove in and grabbed him and flipped him over and I was able to grab a rock and get to the other side."

The two heroes pulled him out and discovered he'd stopped breathing. Together, they performed CPR and brought the teenager back to life. It was like watching a miracle.

"I just decided 'No, we are going to keep pressing him, just forever. Keep that heart pumping," said Golding. 

A Coast Guard helicoper airlifted the teen to a hospital, where he's now in stable condition.