A 19-year-old man is in a stable condition recovering in Wagga Base Hospital after he was dragged from the bottom of the wave pool, where he had been lying unconscious on Monday night.

In the first rescue of its kind at the facility, the two lifeguards - assisted by two doctors who just happened to be at the pool at the time - performed CPR on the pool deck while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

About 20 seconds after he had been pulled from the pool the man started to cough and splutter and was placed in the recovery position where he slowly returned to consciousness.

The two heroic lifeguards did not wish to be named or have their photograph taken yesterday but their colleagues, lifeguard supervisor Dave Bray and temporary centre manager David Barrett, were glowing in their praise of the duo.

“I was the supervisor on the night and I thought they both reacted superbly,” Mr Bray said.

“They’ve both been here for about two years and they act as supervisors themselves from time to time so that experience would have helped them.”

Mr Barrett said the rescue was testament to the stringent training program Oasis lifeguards are put through on an ongoing basis.

“The guards did well ... it was a positive outcome from a potentially bad situation,” he said.

As the rescue unfolded it caused a stir throughout the facility with swimmers getting out of the pool to try to see what was happening.

Several football teams were using the Oasis for recovery sessions at the time of the rescue, just after 7pm, but it was the doctors who were best equipped to help.

“Very rarely would there be a time when there’s not a doctor or a physio or some kind of health professional at the pool for their own leisure,” Mr Barrett said.