The San Marcos Boys Aquatics team will hold a paddle-out ceremony on December 10, 2025, in honor of their 17-year-old schoolmate who died in a skateboarding accident last month, it announced in an Instagram post.
The ceremony, in honor of Tayden Tomblin, will be held at 4:30 p.m. at East Beach, according to the Instagram post. A paddle-out is a symbolic ritual performed on the beach to honor a deceased surfer.
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Tayden died from a head injury during a skateboarding accident on November 29, 2025, while his family was away in the Los Angeles area.
He was a senior at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara and a member of the San Marcos Boys Aquatics water polo and swim teams, San Marcos Boys Aquatics shared in an earlier Instagram post.
Tayden was known for his “infectious kindness, playful spirit, and deep love for the ocean,” San Marcos Aquatics wrote.
“His impact on everyone he met is immeasurable, and he will forever remain in our hearts and memories,” the post added.
The Santa Barbara community has come together to support the Tomblins after their tragic loss.
A fundraiser was created on GoFundMe to help his family with the financial burden following his death. The campaign has been a success and raised more than $80,000, against a target of $50,000.
All the funds will go directly to the Tomblins and will be used to meet medical expenses, celebration-of-life and end-of-life costs, grief counseling, and educational support for Tayden’s sister, according to an update on December 2, 2025, on GoFundMe.
The funds will also be used to establish a nonprofit in Tayden called ‘Non-Negotiable’ that will focus on helmet education and providing helmets to youth, the update added.
In an earlier update on GoFundMe, Tayden’s father Tyler Tomblin shared that despite his tragic demise, Tayden could help seven patients by donating his organs.
Tayden’s “heart, liver, pancreas, lungs (en-bloc), and kidneys” were recovered for a recipient transplant, according to Tomblin’s update.
Tayden’s liver underwent a “split-liver transplant procedure,” where the organ was divided into two segments benefiting two different recipients, Tomblin shared.
“Tayden’s kidneys were also recovered separately, so one recipient will receive the right kidney and another will receive the left,” Tomblin said.
On November 29, 2025, more than 50 friends and family members of the Tomblins joined Tayden’s Honor Walk, accompanying Tayden from UCLA, where he was undergoing treatment, to the donation center.
The Tomblins have started a flower memorial at Tayden’s parking spot at San Marcos High School.
Tayden is survived by his father, Tyler; his mother, Rosalyn; and his sister, Hudzyn.
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Another promising young man gone. This has been a hard year on the swim teams and water polo boys. May it do no long-term pain the them. It’s a tragedy for all of us: This is where the leaders of the next generation come from. Bright, clear-eyed, can-do youngsters. His final gift was to the strangers who will receive his donation of organs and live. It brought tears to these, becoming-cynical old eyes.