RELOCATING: Cali 2 Oahu... is it the right move?

[Aquanaut Jay]

So heres the deal...My wife and are are living in Norther Cali's Bay Area currently. She has worked in the real estate field for the last 11 years and I am a commercial truck driver So needles to point out, in the current countries situation both industries are :klo: in the toilet. We have decided that cold water sucks and that we want to change careers mid life So we have decided we want to move to Hawaii and pursue a scuba career based purely on passion not thoughts of $gettin rich in paradise$. This is not a whim or spur of the moment desicion. We have thought out, researched and discussed this in great detail for many months now. We have decided on Oahu because of the other opportunities it has to offer as "plan B" in regards to our respective industries. We hope and plan to work at a LDS and hopefully work on some day tripper boats or live aboards or anything that has us sleeping,dreaming,walking,talking scuba.

So what we would like to know is ANYTHING you have to say about this. I would especially like to hear from the people that were once in my shoes. The ones who made the move to our 50th state. We will be there for 2 weeks 8/13/08~ 8/26/08 for our yearly wedding anniversary trip to sorta kick the tires and look under the hood. But what I want to hear is the good and the bad about things like...

~how much was the cost to ship your car/household items? how and who did you use to do it?
~Is the cost of living really as bad as the rumors?
~what about importing my dogs? (i'm going through the red tape about this already but still would like advice)
~what about the rumors about whites not being so welcome by true locals and "beat up a howlee (spelling) day"?
~better to get there, stay in a hotel while trying to find housing or use the net like craigs list or some other service and have it ready to go.
~ and anything else I'm forgetting.

Thank you for reading all this and lending another scuba junkie a helping hand!

OH YEAH, and any dvice on the places and diving shops we should check out while on vacation there next month!

Again thanks for your help and advice! it is truly appreciated!

 

[justleesa]

Good questions! Just thought that I'd bring to your attention that diving is strongly connected to the tourism and that is not doing too great now either. Less flights coming in, people pinching pennies...you should have a back up plan.

 

[Lopaka]

So we have decided we want to move to Hawaii and pursue a scuba career based purely on passion not thoughts of $gettin rich in paradise$.

Hope the pros here will reply to this, but IMHO, you would really be hanging it out there to try and make a go of this without already living here for a while.

~how much was the cost to ship your car/household items? how and who did you use to do it?

Depends on how much stuff you have. Cars cost about $1k each two years ago, got to be higher now with fuel cost increases. Moving a 3-4 bedroom household cost about $20k back then as well. Horizon and Matson are the shippers. Smaller outfits will handle the house to dock and vice versa.

~Is the cost of living really as bad as the rumors?

Not all that much different than the SF area or SoCal, but I do not rent so don't know how that goes. Three bedroom house with pool next door to me rents for ~$2800/mo in Kalama Valley. Food is a bit more (Costco rules), gas is about the same, no heating bills, electricity not too bad if you have solar and do not use A/C (we don't), $$ otherwise, etc. Again, this depends on where you live now for comparison. Neighbor without solar water heating and uses his A/C was running up $400+ electric bills, $180 for us is a high month. Car and house insurance about the same as it was in Ventura county, Calif. I'm sure by Arkansas standards it is unreal, by SoCal standards it is not.

~what about importing my dogs?

Read up on the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture site on "quarantine" rules. Rabies shots done within a certain time period, and a lot of other stuff. Don't remember the details, but it took over 6 months wait to get my cat over here because of the time lapse required between shots and such. We picked him up at the airport, no quarantine, but we were excruciatingly careful to cross the t's and dot the i's to achieve this. Mess up the process and into quarantine he goes.

~what about the rumors about whites not being so welcome by true locals and "beat up a howlee (spelling) day"?

I am sure there are places you could go to find that. I haven't in two years, just some "silent treatment" by clerks a few times. Others living here a lot longer would have to comment on this.

~better to get there, stay in a hotel while trying to find housing or use the net like craigs list or some other service and have it ready to go.

Ought to get here first. Lot of differences around the island as far as living conditions and commuting. Traffic at times in Honolulu is outrageous. Probably the worst thing here in my opinion.

~ and anything else I'm forgetting.

I'll see if anyone else chimes in and it might jog my memory.

 

[scottitheduck]

Great questions Jay and plenty of Oahu Ohana on here to help....

I agree with Lisa, tourism is down a bit this year but there will never be a shortage of LDS's looking for help. Depends on how much work you want to put in and what kind of a nest egg you have to live off of until you get yourself all sorted.

As far as looking for a place, Craigslist is a little overblown. Take a look in the Honolulu Advertiser or Star Bulletin classifieds. While you are here, drive around in some of the neighborhoods and take a look. The traffic can be, as mentioned earlier, a nightmare.

To ship a car I used Dependable Auto Shippers and you can ship out of Oakland.... about $1200. As far as household items, dunno. None of the shippers will let you pack anything in your car so that can be a bit of a drag.

Rent has come down a bit and there are some that are saying that the bottom is in. Could be a great time to find a place and get settled in. PM me if you have anymore questions or would like to get some dives in....

Hope to see you out here soon!

Aloha,

G

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

With regard to shipping; It depends on what you are shipping. When I moved to the Monterey Bay area the RX7 fit in the container that everything was shipped in (with a 2x4 plywood upper deck over the car. A pick-up with gear in the back and kayak on rack might fit in a container also.

 

[howard4113]

REALLY GUTSY MOVE DUDE! When my 18 yr old son was thinking of becoming a marine biologist, I was living on Maui. I told him that he better get a PhD, as one local young girl I know that guides snorkel groups has a masters in marine science! So it would be much easier if you were at least a divemaster - preferrably an instructor. HOWEVER it can be done. Both of you working at a LDS might get you by if you like eating hot dogs. Presumably, the LDS would support your training - if not, then you already know that it's going to cost lots of $$ to get professional certifications. You CAN'T work on the boats without at least a divemaster cert and insurance - however you MIGHT get a boat gig selling pix or videos of tourists (free ride for you and a cut of the take for the op). You need your own rig and some talent for that to work. On the boat, most ops prefer instructors even for guiding dives; as they can do intros, AOW certs..... I'd guess that you'd have no problem getting a job as a driver, however. Qualified help is short all over Hawaii. You might consider that until you've made contacts and gotten professional qualifications. Real estate is another matter. That was hot three years ago. It's really stale now.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

Mark

 

[kmayer]

There's nothing wrong with switching careers, or becoming an instructor. I did that at 40, had a great time. I wouldn't trade it for all the pennies in the world.

Just don't try it in Hawaii. Don't even think about Oahu. SCUBA pros get jack pay almost anywhere -- that's the trade-off for doing something fun instead of cleaning toilets or making beds. Hawaii has one of the highest costs of living anywhere in the US. It's a double whammy. And yes, the economy here is slipping (the land of Aloha usually lags the mainland by a year or two and then it takes the same amount of time to ramp up again).

You can be an instructor anywhere on the planet. Try Asia or South America. It's much cheaper there, but dive pros in some locales are actually higher up in the food chain. Work six months in places where you can get a six month "tourist" visa, then switch to the other hemisphere so you always dive in good weather with lots of tourists. If you find a place you love, let the dive shop handle the immigration issues. It's still a lot of hard work, and believe me when you've finished your twentieth intro dive of the DAY, and your boat boys are hung-over from the night before and your boss has just handed you a 3-day open water student that's afraid of the water and doesn't know how to swim, you will feel that you have earned every last cent.

 

[Aquanaut Jay]

I want to thank you all for the honest information. I really appreciate it! The info here was helping me mentally because this is a big decision to make. I know it's possible and can be done with a little drive and good will power to succeed. So I was happy to move forawd...then KMAYER replied! WOW, talk about wrench in my gears!. That was not what my inner child wanted to hear. But it is exactly what I am wanting to hear. I needed it. So I thank you for you honesty in truth. Although i would like to take it to heart, the most important thing I have to remember is that I am not a single guy looking to travel and have a good time while teaching scuba diving. I am married and have a wife who's clock isn't just ticking but the alarm is about to go off. I need a 'home' where she is all warm and cozy and feels ready to make another major move in life. I know I know I'm asking for alot trying to do all this in Hawaii, but it's not like it hasn't been done 1,000's of times with a little vigor and determination of the heart and soul. So we will talk about it SOME MORE and then SOME MORE AGAIN and try to make the best educated decision for our well being. But we all know at the end of the day, sadly sometimes, it will ultimately be her decision. I just follow the leader...kicking and screaming most of the time! lol

So again thank you all for the insight and the time you took to reply to me..especially you LOPAKA & HOWARD/MARK!

 

[kmayer]

Okay, reality check time: Having a child is why I quit the dive business here and got my job at UH. I know of no one who has a family and can provide food, shelter and especially health care on a dive instructor's salary. Most dive pros with a family have a spouse who has a good paying job and supports her husband's "habit." I'm not a newbie; I am a PADI MSDT with hundreds of certifications, an EFR instructor, and a coast guard licensed captain, not to mention all of the other skills from 4 year college and 20 years in business. My best year, working my okole off, eating lots of ramen and living on my boat (at a ridiculously cheap $60/month moorage instead of my current $1,500/month rent), I made about $16,000. The top earning instructor in the shop made maybe $20K.

I tried to convince my wife that we could arrange adequate health care in the Philippines (where I was working and making decent money before we decided to start making a baby), but she would have none of it. I understand the desire to be in a familiar place when you want to make a nest. Almost all of our relatives live on the East Coast, too. If you still want to dive and must live in the US, think about Florida or North Carolina, too. Their economies are less fragile, and are accessible without air travel.

Bottom line: Starting a family, here, on a dive instructor's wages has not been done 1,000s of times before. I'd say it's less than a dozen. Maybe some of the other ohana can prove me wrong, but I think my guess is closer to reality.

 

[justleesa]

pretty good summation....