On April 8, Santa Barbara–born Collin Bosse, a 23-year-old who had recently graduated from San Diego State, was swimming with friends at Mission Bay when he dove into unexpectedly shallow water and suffered a traumatic injury that instantly left him paralyzed from the chest down.
Bosse’s friends, who were on the beach at the time, immediately jumped into action to recover Bosse from the water and call emergency services. Thanks to their quick actions, he was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where he underwent emergency surgery.
Bosse is a graduate of San Marcos High School, where he was a member of the water polo and surf teams, and he has been surfing all his life. He spent his entire childhood in Santa Barbara, where he volunteered as a surf instructor for young kids and worked for Kids Helping Kids, a nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara.