So my fiancee works in Boston 3 days a week, NJ 1 day, and Philly 1 day... I work in Philly most of the time and travel on occasion as of now. I am going to start traveling much much more in roughly 3 years and can work from basically anywhere that has an international airport. She had the op to apply/get a job in Hawaii and I said "GET IT" because otherwise she wants to move to Boston in 2 years. I used to surf the NE and I know all the spots and probably would live somewhere near Glaucester. But I HATE the cold... also I need proximity to NYC and Europe. There's a big chance my career would go downhill substantially if I moved to Hawaii but would I be happier? Otherwise its south Florida and I'll settle for waist high wind chop for most of the year with the occasional NE reef road and refraction swell.... anyone move to Hawaii? How strong is the vibe there? I hate vibe... would I be able to incorporate myself into some of the breaks and scene or is it too late? How rich are the rich white people on Hawaii? Is there enough money to be made there?
There's not really a single, continuous cognitive thought there, so I m going to give you the best advise I have to offer; go out to the garage, get in the car, turn it on and roll down the windows. Make sure the garage door is closed, crank the radio, and slowly drink a pint of kasser's vodka while having yourself a good think. Revving the engine will help. Ask yourself, what would southjettybill do?
Waaa, I don't like COLD. Waaaa, I don't like VIBE. Look bro-heim, you'd be in Hawaii. You would surf your balls off, and quality surf at that. You got chillrens, if not, I say GO. If you do...You best have money for private schooling, or else dem kids will get beat-up on the reg by the locals. Good luck.
Will there be a vibe in Hawaii?- yes Will you incorporate yourself into the scene there?- no You will ALWAYS be an outsider looking in there. Would I care one bit?- no You will find some other haole's/transplants and make friends, eventually.
Which is more important, your career or surfing? The answer lies in your own personal priorities, not ours.
I'm pretty sure I'm a moron though... so far I've made most of my life decisions based on proximity to surfable waters. I guess I just went on a swelly rant since everyone else does I felt like being included.
No chillens yet... and most likely they would be homeschooled. I will be traveling 8-10 months out of the year and my lady wants to end up traveling with me most of the time. Just need a home base. She just talked to me about Hawaii last night and I kinda freaked and just wanted to rant a bit.
Dang. Traveling 8-10 months out of the year. Godspeed to you. Sounds gnarly. Best of luck with your decision.
I don't have advise really. But I'll say this. I dont think making career choices based off surfing idiotic. To a point ofcourse. Making irresponsible decisions is obviously not good. But if you can make a living happily in multiple spots.....i totally choose the one with the best waves. Ill also add this. Iv never been to Hawaii. Would like to visit. But i don't think I'd ever want to live there. Just somthing about it seems to much to me. Sure they get good waves, allot. But the vibe i hear is down there, plus it being the number 1 spot anyone would think of when it comes to surfing. Id rather be someplace more low key
I like bass's thought process. Go somewhere low key, but make sure it has waves because i wanna visit. What happened to Costa or Nica??? #barnacleforpresident
If you can go to Hawaii for a couple years go .its expensive to live there so you need to have a job or a rich mommy ,but the vibe is mainly for assholes.Oahu was a lot of fun and unless your a shoulder hopping burn artist yu shouldnt have a problem but if yu go with an attitude yu can get hurt and not just by the locals.
Never been to Hawaii, but I have several friends that relocated there years ago and they tell me nothing but good things. The only person I know that says the vibe there suks went with a tude, dropped in on someone and got his ass kicked by a mook. All I heard from people before I went to France was the vibe suked. That was further from the truth. Met many friendly welcoming French and even made some good friends. Karma baby karma. The law of attraction. If you got bad energy it'll resonate no matter how well you fake the smile. In fact, now that Hillary lost I have bailed on my plans to retreat to a third world hideaway and, I'm thinking of moving there myself. I already have a job there waiting for me on the Big Island. I'm planning on doin some reconne later this year to see if I like it.
If you travel 8-10 months you better be damn comfortable flying cuz Hawaii ain't close to nothing. With that being said I am a haole who's been to Hawaii a bunch and have experienced zero issues because of my complexion. Hawaiians live by a simple code. F... with em and they will gladly set you straight. If you show respect you will be fine. Watch out for mongooses, feral hogs, Brazilians, and island fever.
My former fiance almost took a temporary job in Denver, that would have only been for 9 months or something. I love Colorado, but wouldn't wanna live there. With the job I have now, which I did not have then, I travel a lot and don't get to get in the water a lot between September and April. But I do get to go in sometimes, maybe a few times a month. I was at my peak with surfing at that point in my life, back in 2009. The thought of no waves for 9 months really scared me. I loved her though, so I was willing to do it. Luckily, that fell through and we didn't have to temporarily move out there. As far as moving to Hawaii goes, I think about moving to Oahu every day. Haha I feel like I talk about it once a month on here, which is my way of putting it out on paper. With the job I have right now, I can literally live anywhere I want between roughly middle or end of April until roughly middle of September. I only have to work about one week in July out of that time and the rest of the time I'm off. But I work sometimes 80 hours a week for the other 7 months. Last week I worked 88 hours and that was just the worst. I often times think about moving to Oahu for the rest of the year, only I have a mortgage and everything for another 8 years on my home here. I bought this house with the intention of having one or two kids. I was engaged at the time I bought it. That's all over with now and at 46 in a few weeks, I don't think I'll be having a family ever. So I don't need 2100 square feet, but I like it here. I also still need a place to live here for the months I do work. I could sell this house, pay off what's owed and buy a condo on Oahu, but then I'd need to rent a place here or buy a cheap condo. I keep joking that in less than a decade, I can buy a place in Leisure Village (55+ community around here) for $100K haha. My best friend also works with me and has a significant amount of cash for a down payment for something on Oahu. I'm waiting to see if he bites on it, but we don't need to be here year round. He has a 19 year old son, who is now out of school and working full time. That would be all he'd be leaving behind, and really we'd only be there for 5 months anyway. We plan to both keep the job we have well past retirement age, so I have no problem working like this until I'm 70+ if I'm lucky enough to still be living. You only live once and sometimes you have to take chances. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so if you can move to Oahu (or some destination where you'd like to surf everyday) go for it man! I'd rather be in Hawaii or Florida than Boston. I'm not sure there's a lot of money to be made there though. I'm in a unique situation, so I wouldn't need a job there. Though maybe I would, to compensate for the high HOA's and stuff in some of the condo's we've browsed online. I hate Boston and pretty much every big city, even though Boston is only what? Like an hour from the ocean? Maybe only 40-45 minutes? Kind of like the distance between NYC and the Monmouth County beaches or Philly and the Ocean County/Atlantic County beaches. The only big city in the USA I'd really love is San Diego and obviously Honolulu. Tampa is great, but the surf there sucks. Same with Miami. I've heard Jacksonville is decent for surf. Got a good friend living there now. I'm certainly a backer of Oahu!
The Big Island isn't too bad either. I think it gets a little colder there than Oahu. I have a friend (more like an acquaintance) that moved to the big island after high school and started surfing. He even competed a little bit. I think he's even got a surf shop there and lives on the beach. I think the Big Island is cheaper, though the economy and jobs there are more scarce. Perhaps I'm wrong on that though. One other thing about Hawaii, everything is more expensive there. From gasoline prices to food. You're miles and miles away from everything out in ocean and things are either brought in on ship there or flown there, a lot of food is grown there too. It's a beautiful place. I can sit here all day and pump up Hawaii, as you can see with quite a few posts I've made here on Oahu and Hawaii I'm glowing just talking about it haha. My original plan was to maybe retire in my mid 50's and then sell off my house in Jersey and move there. Maybe not completely retire, but work something small out there and hopefully have a retirement account of savings worked up by then. Obviously that's changed, but living there for 5 months a year is still a possibility.
Thanks for all the hits guys... yea I really just wanted to put it out there and my lady isn't moving forward with the job. I tried to convince her but I would be leaving my contract in Philly and she would leave her job and be taking a cut in prestige and pay... I'm going to try to get a contract on Hawaii the next couple years and hope to be asked back... my contracts normally last 1-2 months so maybe I'll get to spend some time there avd feel it out. I want to partially retire by 40 so hopefully I can settle down at a good wave then...