PACIFIC BEACH – When Collin Bosse talks about strength, the Crown Point resident isn’t referring to his family’s triathlete genes or the physical power it once took him to carve a wave in the Pacific Ocean.
At 26, three years after a dive into shallow water in Mission Bay left him paralyzed from the chest down, Bosse has discovered a different kind of muscle.
“Back in the day, strength wasn’t an important part of my life. It was just about being active,” Bosse says. “Now, strength has transformed into a mindset. I enjoy the idea of doing hard things and pushing myself further than I think I can go. To me, the greatest battle someone can face is with their own mind.”
Today, Bosse is winning that battle.
With only two classes left until he completes his MBA at the University of San Diego this month, the San Diego State alumnus (business management) is preparing to transition from student to professional, looking toward a future in digital marketing.
A Santa Barbara native and part of an athletic, high-energy family, Bosse once measured progress in water polo wins, runs completed, waves mastered, and ski slopes conquered. Now, he said he measures progress in “small wins” — the kind many take for granted.
A month into his hospitalization, Bosse reached a landmark moment: He was finally able to scratch an itch on his face. It was one of the first signs of regained autonomy following the 2023 spinal cord injury that broke his C5 and C6 vertebrae.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had to scratch your face and you couldn’t do it — it’s the worst,” Bosse recalls, laughing. “Now, it’s small things… those little wins lead to the overarching feeling of independence.”
The fact that he was there to feel that itch at all is a testament to those his mother, Holly Bosse, calls her son’s lifesavers.
Collin Bosse’s friend, Haakon Hoyer-Nielsen, was the one who pulled him from the water and began the immediate lifesaving work. At the same time, Dr. Ali Bagheri, his surgeon at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, performed the critical surgery that followed.
Holly Bosse notes that many other important people and places have been instrumental in his recovery, including Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., where he received top spinal cord injury care for three months.
Collin Bosse’s journey has been a reconstruction project for his entire family. His sister, Summer Bosse, lives across the street from her brother and remains his top supporter and a lifeline.
Holly Bosse, who splits her time between her work as an educator in Santa Barbara County and San Diego County, where Collin’s father, Brian, works as an assistant manager for the Rancho Santa Fe Association, describes the emotional weight of the transition.
“Collin is obviously bearing the brunt of it, the daily pain and the struggle,” she said. “But it’s also really hard as parents. We have 23 years of hopes and dreams that are just dashed now, and we’re trying to rebuild new ones. It’s certainly like starting from ground zero.”
Despite the struggle, the family’s athletic background provides a framework for resilience.
“We don’t ever think we’re beaten,” Holly Bosse said. “We always have that belief that there’s a win out there for us, so we try to see all these small improvements as adding up to a big win for him.”
As he pushes through challenging therapy several days a week at Carlsbad’s Adapt Functional Movement Center and VIP NeuroRehabilitation Center, surfing remains part of Collin Bosse’s wavelength. While he plans to return to adaptive surfing soon, he has discovered a secondary passion: filming his friends from the shore.
“None of us ever wanted to be the one to film,” Bosse said of his pre-injury surf trips. “But this fills that gap. I get to be with my friends at the water, and it makes me feel really good about myself.”
Behind the scenes, the financial reality remains a constant weight. Specialized care often exceeds $6,000 monthly, and there is a long road ahead. The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation estimates the lifetime costs for a 25-year-old with a C5-C8 cervical SCI at around $3.5 million. The family’s GoFundMe has raised nearly $300,000, and a campaign at Help Hope Live is also providing a place for people to donate.
For Bosse, the focus remains on hope – and providing hope is something he plans to bring to the lives of others who have SCIs by sharing his stories and his victories moving forward. He said his work as a hope dealer also applies to his able-bodied friends.
“Life is hard for everybody,” he says. “Being open and having compassion for each other is what matters. It really is about holding on to hope and really believing that your life is worth living.”
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