AN injured jet-skier with a suspected broken back was aided by a man from a passing speedboat until help arrived.

Justin Langford, who was coming back into Poole Harbour said: “We saw a jet-skier jumping around in the wake from a passing boat.”

He said he could see the man was in trouble, slumped over the jet-ski, when they were 100 metres away.

“He wasn’t moving. We raced over to him. He was in a bad way.”

Having raised the alarm Justin, 31, jumped in and supported the man, staying with him for around 40 minutes until the Poole inshore lifeboat arrived followed by a helicopter and he was winched away.

The drama took place on Saturday around 5pm, close to the first marker buoy in the Swash Channel, near the harbour entrance.

Justin, a New Zealander who works for Qantas Airlines, said he was trained to respond to such an emergency and said the man was in a lot of pain and could not be moved.

“He didn’t lose consciousness. He remained on the jet-ski. He was in severe pain and we had no pain relief for him,” he said.

“He was suspected to have a broken back.”

Footage filmed by the RNLI

Pain relief and first aid were given to the jet-skier by the winch man from the helicopter who was on the pilot boat, which was standing by. When the lifeboat arrived he was moved onto a stretcher and made comfortable.

The lifeboat moved into open water where the helicopter, alerted by Portland Coastguard, winched the casualty up and flew him to the landing site at Whitecliff, which had been cleared by Poole Coastguards.

An ambulance was waiting which took him to Poole Hospital.

Playing down his life-saving role Justin said: “There were lots of other boats out there. I was just the first on the scene.”