2 moths living in San Diego - need advices! (Corona, Imperial Beach: to rent, schools)

[xarp]

Hi everybody,

I am glad that I joined this forum and I found already lots of information here. However my situation is little bit specific so I decided to post my own thread.

I am a student and I just finished my college in Manhattan, Kansas. I will have some time for travelling next few months and I decided to stay two months in San Diego. My dream is to learn surfing and what I have heard, San Diego is the best location, where to start. I am quite sure that it won't be a problem to find good surfing schools down there. But if you have some great one, let me know.

My biggest worries are about accomodation. I will have just few thousands for all that so I need to find some cheap living, but also in some good - safe location. For a student with laptop would be best just one room somewhere, but I know it's difficult to find something like that just for such a short time.
Also I was thinking about living on the boat - is this a better way for this short time? Can I rent a boat in the port, where I easily live 2 months? With electricity?

Thanks for any advice!

[SouthCali4LifeSD]

hello xarp, welcome to San Diego. sorry, i may not be the one to answer your question with specifics but i'll definitely try to recommend accomodations for you.

if you are on a budget, as most of us are during these hard economic times, i advise you to check out a local community college such as city college, miramar college, mesa college or even southwestern college and take a look at what surfing classes they have to offer. if you have california residency, you can take the class for like 20 bucks because it's 1 unit. if you don't have residency, it's something around $144. it's a 1 unit class typically and you can learn how to surf with dozens of others and meet people easily that way.

also, if you are looking to rent a room, specifically one near a beach, and want a great deal, i recommend imperial beach and ocean beach. both communities are excellent beach towns that are highly underrated. ocean beach is more centrally located and may cost a little more then imperial beach but still, compared to the rest of the counties beach communities, you will find excellent deals.

i don't know much about living on a boat since i've never done it before, but check out the chula vista yacht or shelter island off of harbor drive/rosecrans in point loma and you might find something, i don't know.

lastly, if you don't mind living in somewhat lower income areas not on the beach (but still relatively safe communities) just to save money, check out north park, university heights, national city, west chula vista, linda vista, mira mesa, and the college area. i don't recommend these areas for any reason other then if you are on an extreme budget. living closer to the beach will save you gas so that may be all the difference.

if there's anything else you want to know, leave another comment and i'll gladly give you more advice.

[RD5050]

You may be able to rent a room for a few months using the roommate section of San Diego Craigslist:

san diego rooms & shares classifieds - craigslist


Another good area to live is Clairemont or Pacific Beach. PB is right at the ocean, and Clairemont is just east of PB. PB is a very popular surf area.

[leighland]

I'm K-State alum-1991! I hear my Little Apple has changed dramatically since I graduated.
IB (Imperial Beach)is a great suggestion- its really cheap compared to SD, probably because its far from the hot spots like the Gaslamp and Mission Valley. You should be able to find a 2 bedroom for around 1350 a month. Its got a kinda small town feel like Manhattan used to be. My Hubby would surf at IB but it gets dirty there from time to time. Good Luck.

[GratefulDeb]

Wouldn't the poster be able to take advantage of a hostel since she is aa student. I don't really know much about it but I have read that other students do that and I think there is one right on the beach.

[kimmer]

I lived on a boat in Mission Bay (Dana Inn Marina) for a year when I was a teen. It was a blast. A bit cool in the winter, but fun.
I don't know the cost of this, but you might be able to rent someone's boat during the winter, or other season they're not using it.

[xarp]

Hi again everybody,

many thanks for advices. I came back to my thread and I see that there are many people trying to help. Thanks for that!

if you are on a budget, as most of us are during these hard economic times, i advise you to check out a local community college such as city college, miramar college, mesa college or even southwestern college and take a look at what surfing classes they have to offer. if you have california residency, you can take the class for like 20 bucks because it's 1 unit. if you don't have residency, it's something around $144. it's a 1 unit class typically and you can learn how to surf with dozens of others and meet people easily that way.

I looked online and I found this: San Diego Community College District - Schedule of Classes . It's a schedule system for MESA, CITY and MIRAMAR college. However there are no surfing classes in the choice. So I am not sure if they really offer them. Or do you have some different links? And I can enroll the class for example just in april and may? I don't understand it much.

If this won't work, there will be still lot of surf schools, right? But probably lot more expensive.

also, if you are looking to rent a room, specifically one near a beach, and want a great deal, i recommend imperial beach and ocean beach. both communities are excellent beach towns that are highly underrated. ocean beach is more centrally located and may cost a little more then imperial beach but still, compared to the rest of the counties beach communities, you will find excellent deals.

That is probably true, it should be cheaper somewhere further from central San Diego. I will use craigslist ( as one of you recommended) and I hope I will find some bedroom in this locations for around $500. I hope it's possible.. ;o) I don't want to have 1bedroom appartment, I actually prefer to live with more people in the appartment, since I will come there alone.

I see also that the boat is gonna be probably too much difficult to find, so I will probably try live just somewhere near the beach.

I think it's maybe to early look on craigslist now, though, because people usually want somebody right now and not in one month - I am going to come in the beginning of april. So I will be checking it more later.

If you have some advices for me with the surfing schools, I would be glad for that.

[SouthCali4LifeSD]

hi again xarp, sorry that you aren't finding success on finding surf classes within the city of san diego community college district.

what i do know is that at southwestern college which is in chula vista, i've had friends take surfing classes that were once a week, typically on a saturday morning, and they use to practice on the silver strand which is inbetween coronado and imperial beaches.

try the southwestern community college website at Southwestern College and if you can't find anything, let me know, i will help you out.

also, san diego is a surf mecca, if you can't find anything within the school system, you can definitely find lots of other options to learn for sure. let me know if you need further help, i'll gladly provide it

[fowler_966]

hey! i live in manhattan right now! taking a semester off from k-state to work and try to save up some money to move to cali...possibly san diego.
just thought it was a weird coincidence
first time seeing another k-stater on here!

[leighland]

Originally Posted by fowler_966

first time seeing another k-stater on here!

We're everywhere-there's a big K-State alum group in Coronado (Go Wildcats! Go Beasly!)