Trade? San Diego for Honolulu? Need input!

Triathlon Forum
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Greetings everyone!

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic post, but here goes…

I currently live in the great triathlon community of North County San Diego. Not only is this a great place to live, as you all know, but I have great house and my commute is less than 1 mile. The training grounds are supurb and there are no negatives that I can think of.

My current employer has offered me a position in Honolulu. Same job, but a lot more potential for big bucks as there won’t be as much competition (I’m in sales) in Hawaii as there is here in SD. I know that going to Hawaii is the dream of many people, but San Diego ain’t too shabby either. Any Honolulu pros or cons that you can assist with would be greatly appreciate by me, my wife, and my 6 month old son. We’re in our mid-30’s and anti-party types.

Housing?
Training?
Traffic?
Roads for cycling?
Areas around Honolulu to live? etc, etc. etc.

Thanks in advance!

RD

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throw in Laguna Beach and a township to be named later and you’ve got yourself a deal.

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Honolulu AKA Floating Los Angeles. I wouldn’t put a dog into the public schools on Oahu! San Diego baby. There is more to life than a few $'s!

Ever heard of island fever?

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As a native San Diegan I would not trade it for anything - I lived in GA for 5 years and hated life - at one point the idea of transfer to HI came up - as someone else said in this string can you say Island Fever? Though I have never lived there I have been told by many it is expensive. Stick with the North County of SD.

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WOW, non one seems to like Hawaii here;)

Well typing from sunny breezy Hawaii just back from a ride i’ll chime in. Now I’m not quite your target demographic, 26, in school single, raised here…

Housing-EXPENSIVE, but you just have bad timing, real-estate is going crazy over here and prices are going way up. As a renter I personally don’t detect much change in my housing situation but if you’re looking to buy it’s a tough market. Where would you be living/working on the island?

Traffic-back to where are you working, if you are commuting from the wrong end of the island you can hit a good 45 minutes of traffic in the morning. Hopefully you can find somewhere close to live. In the Diamond Head area you’re near downtown Honolulu and training is great. If you’re out on the west side it can be a pain getting into town and there’s not many places to ride or do any type of training out there. It’s doable, I used to do it working at Pearl Harbor, but it’s boring.

Training-Lots of training groups but compared to what you’re used to, or what I’ve heard it’s like there it’s notch or two down here. I usually train alone or with a few standard training partners. We’ve got a three or four cycling clubs out here and a bunch of tri-clubs. Don’t expect any huge weekend road rides though. Runs pretty much every weekend, a smattering of cycling races and at least a tri a month for most of the year. Road biking is good but there’s only so many places to ride on the island… Not a problem for me but I had a guy from New York complaining on a ride this morning. Mtn biking is good but you usually have to drive to get to a good trail and it’s nothing like what you guys have where you are. A few masters programs and the gorgeous ocean…

Living, again, I’d shoot for the Eastern side of the island near Diamond head if you want nice Hawaii weather and good training grounds with people to train with. It’s all in the city of Honolulu but look on a map for Kaimuki, Kahala(expensive), Manoa and anywhere around there on a map. Hawaii Kai is nice but traffic in the mornings is a pain. Kaneohe and Kailua on the other side of the island are really nice, quiet and non-city like but you’ll be hunting for groups to train with. If you’re okay training solo and don’t work in town or don’t mind a 20-30 minute commute those areas maybe unbeatable.

okay, back to work, good luck.

Tai

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P.S. what are you selling that would do better in Hawaii??? There’s not much that does better here

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do you know David Kerr by chance?

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BTW- I currently live in Carlsbad and will be starting the nursing program at Palomar in January. Once I become an RN which will be in two years my plan is to move to Hawaii! I’ve always loved Hawaii and although I don’t plan on staying there forever, I’d still like to live there for atleast a few years! I will add that from what I’ve heard the cycling is very limited, you can only go around the island so many times! :slight_smile:

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Having lived for a time fairly near where you are (went to high school at Mt. Carmel) and having also been a many, many time visitor to Hawaii…if it were somewhere other than Honolulu I would say go for it. My 2 cents is along the lines of the other poster comparing Honolulu to LA. Would you trade SD for LA?

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Howzit,

I grew up in Kailua, and have gone back to the rock on average 2-3 times/year since I left for college. I live in Vista and wouldn’t have it any other way even if I weren’t dirt poor.

I actually turned down a job offer that was pretty good to stay in Cali (nor-cal at the time). The opportunities on the rock are few and far between, most people work one job their entire life. You also can’t go anywhere (desert, vegas, SF, Mexico/South America) without a huge effort.

But, the clincher is cycling. Cycling on Oahu completely sucks. I have tri-friends who live there and they suck it up and deal, but it sucks. The Big Island is a different story, and of course the weather is conducive to starting at 5am and getting that century done by noon, but it all just totally completely blows chunks.

On the other hand, there is no place I’d rather be for swimming and running. Which was about all I did when I was a kid, ran around and went to the beach. If you want to specialize in aquathlon, Oahu is a dream destination.

There are some great people to train with, but nowhere near as many as you’ll find here in SD. Housing is roughly comparable to LJ/Del Mar, if you have 600K you can afford something nice, but if you’re scraping to buy into a 300k condo you’ll probably be a little disappointed. Traffic is horrendous, but if you can commute on a bicycle you can beat it (distances are short, I can do some routes on a bike in traffic faster than I could in a car).

It won’t be a bad life, and your son will be totally stoked (get ready for those $11,000 Punahou bills, they cut into the bike budget). The best parts of Hawaii are free, and the trail running is cool even on Oahu. It’s cheap and easy to visit the other islands, but you get lazy as a kamaaina so you tend to stay put.

Any other q’s, feel free to e, daveeasa@hotmail.com If I were 65 and Oahu real estate were in the tanks, I’d go in a heartbeat. But at my age and status, I prefer SD. Ironically, almost all of my high school friends (all college grads with successful jobs) are back on Oahu or planning to move back in the near future. Most are married, some are considering kids. It’s not a bad place if you give up your interest in cycling :stuck_out_tongue:

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we know dave, he recently qualified for kona at honu. the group here is quite small and we know or know of each other. will tell him he’s been mentioned.

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Hey Acorn- Did you go to Punahou??

Jim

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tell him the hot girl in San Diego! Or the girl who set his house alarm off! :smiley: He told me of his Kona trip! I will be there to cheer him on!!

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yes, cornhole is a pun grad.

The other good/bad thing about Oahu is the small world feel. Coconut wireless is in full effect. Within 6 months, you’ll know everyone and everyone will know you. Makes for a great, comfortable, at times stagnant social situation. I get all I need out of my 2 weeks on the rock/year. Not much changes over there, at least compared to the new homes, new roads, etc that crop up in North County every year. Life moves at a very slow pace, but that’s the appeal as well as the drawback.

But, most of all, it boils down to the cycling. Ironically, I know of quite a few strong cyclists who live on Oahu. But it really isn’t a good place to ride. You can do it, but it isn’t comparable to living here. We have it so good out here with all the races, back roads, perfect, dry, not-too-hot, not-too-cold weather, tons of bike lanes, and generally considerate drivers (more so than anywhere else I’ve lived.) If you can give up cycling, or trade 1/2 your bike time for more water time, Oahu is a great place. If you’re married to your saddle, don’t do it.

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Damn, I know the name but I can’t place the face, too many triathletes out here:)

Do NOT compare hawaii to LA, god that’s horrible, my brother lives in LA and I visit off and on, I could never handle LA… Maybe if you live in downtown Honolulu but that’s easy to avoid, I avoid it nearly year round and I only live a few miles away!

Yes cycling is somewhat limited but I don’t ever seem to get bored. I mix it up with mtn biking, lots of running, swimming, and riding every route I can think of. I usually ride the same route most of the time though, it’s an easy choice and right out my door.

The other islands are nice but for training you can’t beat O’ahu. This is mainly because the roads here are more cyclists friendly (that’s not saying a whole lot btw), and there are a lot more people to train with. I’m from the Big Island and have lived on Maui and although they are nice there is NO motivation to train when I am there. I need people, I need activity, I need an active tri scene. O’ahu has that. We have the city, we have small towns, we have traffic, we have empty roads, a bit of everything. A lot of areas in Ca are awesome and having raced there quite a bit I do consider moving at times. But I just love it here.

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Do you know any Durand’s? Rob was a coach and then worked in the office forever until he retired and his daughters both went there…

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I’m 1992, so name sounds familiar but prolly before my time.

I second Tai that LA is worlds worse than Oahu. I’d take Honolulu over LA or NYC no matter what.

But Hono vs SD is an ocean-vs-riding question. 78-80 degree water year round with fishies and great (but still crowded) surfing vs more cycling routes than one can do in a year.

Tai talks about motivation and that could be an element for some. I do all my oahu training solo, and at times it gets lonely. I see 2 or 3 bikes on my round-the-rock ride, and this is an island with almost a million people on it. The Big Island would be even more desolate, but at least you have bike lanes and less intersections/traffic congestion. I couldn’t live in Hilo or Kona year round though, I’d go nuts. I could live on Oahu, but I’d have to give up any serious interest in riding and just accept my fate as an eternally crappy cyclist.

There is no swami’s ride on Oahu. If you are a decent runner you can win the local 5k with a 17. On the other hand, you’ll have a fantastic tan year round, and you will think $3 for a gallon of gas or $5 for a box of cereal is cheap.

It’s really a tough decision. I have many friends who are intelligent, successful, and motivated who moved back. I am actually pretty surprised how many have moved back. But none of them ride. The only guys I know over there who ride are ones who have strong ties to the island, either family or who grew up there and never really left. Once you’ve trained in SD, it’s hard to go back for more than a few weeks. At least that’s how I feel. On 10/17 I’ll be stoked to board that plane and head back to what I consider “home” even though I’ve only been here for 5 years now.

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tell him the hot girl in San Diego! Or the girl who set his house alarm off! :smiley: He told me of his Kona trip! I will be there to cheer him on!!

WE LOVE DAVID KERR!!!
My first meeting with him, he was wearing only a towel. :wink:

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Thanks for everyone’s input…keep it coming…

I, too, hate LA and would never move there, so it’s interesting to see that some feel that there is a direct feel between the two…

I absolutely LOVE sandy eggo…it’s a tough decision, but maybe I can go out to “the rock” for a short time, keep the house here in SD and come back to SD when the island fever gets too hot.

Thanks again!

RD

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Maybe I have been sleeping for the past 13 years, but Honolulu to LA? That is a long stretch. I live 3 blocks from work (as does my wife), we split one car and drive less than 3k miles a year between us. I ride from my house and have a 5 1/2 mile paved climb on a country road starting at my back door. I am less than 2 miles from the swimming beach, 3 miles from surfing, 2 miles from hiking trails,3 blocks to the YMCA and breath some of the cleanest air in the world 29 out of thirty days a month. I might have missed 2 days that it was kind of too rainy to train in the past year or so. We don’t have a heater or air conditioner in our Condo so our utilities are less than $50 a month.

Yes we do have traffic if you choose to live in the burbs, but most of the people I know in So Cal or Low Cal have it at least that bad. We do have pretty crappy schools, but I am sure if we scrounge the hood in any city you can find a bad school or two in there as well.

Our real estate is way up there, but I think I have read a thread or two about the SD bubble and housing costs. Most people here don’t have the need for a 3k sq foot house like I used to have on the mainland. My only problem is storage for a couple surfboards and ten or so bikes in our 1000 sq ft condo.

Riding is a bit boring, but I do ride 90% of the time from my front door as I hate to drive to workout. The Hawaiian lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but suits me fine. When we moved here I was told and believe it that

In the 1st year 50% of the newcomers go home.

After 3 years 50% of the ones that stayed will go home

After 5 years you are an Islander and will probably stay for 10 years or more

It is way different living in Hawaii and it takes some time to “Get it” living here. Some people never do catch on and don’t really like it that much. The weather is unbelieveable here, and the mountains and beaches a true gift from God. I never did get the Island Fever thing, however my wife needs to get off the rock at least once a year. I think our biggest problem is that we are on a rock in the middle of the ocean so travel costs are high, but that also keeps the inlaws and unwanted guests at bay. We also have the EZ way to qualify for Ironman, as you only have a couple toughguys to beat in any age group. Unless you are Tai’s group and you will never beat him, he is as modest as he is fast.

Honolulu has the better part of a million people, but plays like a small town in a lot of ways. The Coconut Wireless works and you get to know as many trifolks as you like. I usually train by myself or with a few buds, but we have three or four Tri groups to use if so inclined.

My biggest complaint about Big Island is the Kona air quality sucks. The one day a month we get crappy air is when the winds are “Kona”. Little Kona town is having growth issues and traffic problems. But then again most every"dreamtown" in the mountain west is having growth and housing cost problems as well.

My advise would be to jump at the Islands and if it is not for you go back. No law against moving around a bit. Aloha G