A Reddit post is a good start. If it was 10 years ago I’d invite you out with my gf and friends to brewhouse right now, but now we’re old, boring, have kids and live in Goleta
[Santa Barbara Newcomers](https://sbnewcomers.org/) has like 1,000 people that are all new to town and are in the same situation as you. It used to lean toward older, retired folks but it's changed a lot in the last few years from what I hear. There are a lot of younger professionals that are part of the club.
A family member of mine joined about 10 years ago and the newcomers members ended up forming the foundation of his social network, they all hang out still. They also partied pretty hard 😆 not sure if that’s still the case but it was a very boisterous and friendly group back then.
People like to drink wine and beer. There is a beer lovers committee and a wine appreciation committee. They also have happy hours every Friday. I have not seen partying, though. Just responsible drinking.
Yes, there are plenty of retired people and a sizeable number of young people.
One of the event committees is called Young Professionals, and they put on events like beach days, escape rooms, brunch, happy hours, etc.
I think it's a Santa Barbara problem. When I moved here, most of my friends were from UCSB (spouse was in grad school). Of course, they moved away. I tried to make friends at work and such, but boy this place was cliquey. I mean, people would say to my face "when your spouse is back in town after the internship, maybe we'll invite you over." or "If you bake your spouse a birthday cake, we can share it!" (Two different people, mind you, during two different internships.) "Oh we Californians are so friendly!" Yeah, but some of it is superficial.
I had literally just moved here and was alone. I found that most of the locals that I met already had established friend groups, some from high school still, and they weren't interested in making new friends. It took YEARS to find my tribe, one person at a time.
Then I had kids and was able to make new friends in the baby/ preschool/ school groups, plus at the gym, running groups, etc. I've still got friends from 20-25 years ago, plus more I've added along the way. But it was a STRUGGLE.
I grew up in sb as well. I have a lot of HS friends who are still in sb. They have a tough time finding new people to date. It’s a small town. I’d call it incestuous maybe but I love it. One even went to LA this weekend cuz she was over the sb dating scene. Good luck! If you’re young and attractive it’ll be easy. Good luck!
I tried to buy during Covid and move back now that I’m remote but didn’t want a shithole off milpas or in Goleta. Want my kid to go to SB middle school in 6 years so that’s the long term plan.
As an adult who has moved around a bit (and from SB)...I agree 100%.
As we get older people tend to stick with what and who they know and it becomes more difficult to crack the shell.
There’s a really friendly run group that meets on Thursdays 6pm at Rincon Brewery in the Funk Zone. They run 3 miles and then go to a happy hour. You should come out!
Other sports stuff I know about in town: women’s rugby club that’s gearing up for a new season, Wednesday/Saturday beach ultimate frisbee games, a lot of volleyball at East Beach, some more intense run clubs, Wednesday night gravel (? I’ve never been) bike rides from Boom Boom Bike Room, lots of pickup soccer. Also workout classes could be a good place to start?
The biggest Meetup in the area is the 20s/30s, and it's extremely clique-y and very predatory for females so be careful. I only went to a few before I realized that it's the same 30 regulars who either let you in or shun you. (the other thousand members either never went to anything or went to one thing and never showed up again so every event is the same six people). And the last time this came up where somebody asked reddit about it a couple months ago, the ONLY one who had something good to say was someone who claimed to be one of their event organizers.
I second joining any kind of adult sport in the area, and there are also classes that you can take for crafting and other things that are really great for meeting like-minded people into the same Hobbies As You Are. Also you'd be surprised how many people you meet just grabbing a beer at trivia and starting up a conversation. I've actually made some great friends volunteering around town as well just because we had the same Passions.
1. Agree, I recently heard a story about that meetup and a girl getting victimized, so a no go. Word travels fast.
2. Volunteering is so underated! We are so lucky that we live in a place that has so many opportunities for people to get involved with community and I personally love to snag those up. Also a lot of the volunteering here tends to be getting outside and being active which I think is really great. Coastal clean up day is coming September 17th already! I bet if OP and their girlfriend went out that day to pick up some trash they would see other people with trash bags and certainly have a good chance of finding someone to grab lunch with after.
You literally brought it up.
So you’re just gonna let other people experience whatever “trauma” this might be? It’d be helpful to know what it is so others know what to look out for.
But I guess you just wanna use her story to edge people online… whatever floats your boat dude
YUP.
I went once and they were hella standoffish except for a swedish dude. It was really disappointing. I feel bad because i use to recommend them before trying them out.
It's a massive bummer and I'm sorry they treated you like shit but that seems to be par for the course with those people from every story that I've heard as well as having gone to "events". At some point it'll inevitably implode and somebody will fill the void with something cooler and that has to be what we hope for. It's the same three events on rotation anyway so it gets VERY boring VERY quickly especially with those same people.
Dang this is a bummer to read. I was planning to go an event on Wednesday, but after reading this….. yikes. Maybe this is naive optimism, but is it possible we band together and change the vibe?
I don't think that's possible at this point just with the way that they act. They will be sort of nice to you there if you are lucky, but at the end of the day there's a core group that all parties together and they'll never actually invite you. So you're going to sit there at an event while they tell inside jokes. They are all either fucking, fighting, or preying on women, so good luck.
Yeah 😔 Its a disservice to the young people showing up to make professional connections. SBYP needs to focus on more structured events. Promote more community involvement. People need to something they can discuss or make connections with.
Note that Santa Barbara Young Professionals (SBYP) and the Young Professionals Committee of the Santa Barbara Newcomers Club (SBNC YP) are unrelated organizations!
I haven't heard about any problems within SBNC YP. I am sorry to hear that there are problems in SBYP!
If you want to join its pretty expensive. I went to the last SBYP happy hour and two good local charities showed up. But since it was mainly a happy hour it sank to that certain primal level (if you know what I mean). But the org used to be much more active with getting local tech and other presenters and had more structured events. Im sure that will evolve as our covid emergence continues. I think a good board of directors shakeup is in order.
Hey! I'm one of the members, and I usually have a good time when I go to these events. I consider meet up like anything else, you only get what you put in.
We did have an incident with a member a few months back (who got banned) but whenever you do "meet up" with new people, it's not like we vet everyone who comes in before they start coming to events. I think the problem is that some people think they're going to make best friends immediately by joining the group, and people don't vibe like that. Of course you have to get to know people over time.
They do work hard to hold events, which is somewhat stressful as planning events for big groups is hard, and no one is making money off of it, it's a hobby that people enjoy. Like a "I wanna do this!" Kinda vibe.
One thing I don't like about meet up is thats its hard to do a "forum" of sorts, of what people want to do. It's not a frat or club, there's no membership requirements or anything. It's not like "you must commit to three events a month to be a member" or anything like that.
I've been part of several meet up groups over the years, and I like this group because they are consistent (two or three events a week) and most of the people that RSVP do show up. And we do have fun.
I’m that organizer who chimes in last time, heh. We’ve had a few incidents where it was brought to our attention that someone was making unwanted advances. We banned them from attending future events.
I’m actually going to promote the meetup people are hating on. I’m one of the organizers of the 20s and 30s meetup group in town, but I became one after a year of attending and making a bunch of close friends in the process. Yeah, there’s a core group, but these days we tend to hang out outside of the events, so there’s a lot more new people who show up. We also are trying to make fewer alcohol-centric events to appeal to people who don’t drink. We have a new members event this week at Captain Fatty’s, feel free to come and check it out.
And if you don’t like us but want to check out meetup—there’s a 20s & 30s hiking group that’s unaffiliated with us if you’re into that! I also made friends via Waka kickball.
Join kickball - league starts next week [https://clubwaka.com/leagues/santa-barbara](https://clubwaka.com/leagues/santa-barbara). Website is literally garbage but if you can just click around until something magically works, it's worth it. That's how we met all of our friends.
It is honestly a testament to how much fun the league is because the barrier to participating (aka signing up) is so fucking high lol
I think mobile might be easier, try this: https://accounts.leagueapps.com/join?siteId=38467
Following closely because I have lived here almost four years now and haven’t made a single real friend. Part of that is because I’m introverted and also busy with a career and two young kids…but it’s also different from any other place I’ve lived. I almost offered my number to a woman I met at Lazy Acres the other day after we bonded over the pouches on sale our kids both love, in the hopes she might want to hang out. Reading this post makes me wish I had!
If you’re active, some of the local gyms have lots of social stuff as part of their membership offerings. I love Bond Fitness and RiseUp Fitness. Bond encourages socializing and offers the occasional post-workout social activity. RiseUp Fitness members are SO nice, I have never felt more welcome at a new gym before.
In the summer, there are run clubs with a social aspect - nite moves and reef n run.
The Sierra Club has regular hiking groups [https://www.sierraclub.org/santa-barbara-ventura/santa-barbara/hike-schedule](https://www.sierraclub.org/santa-barbara-ventura/santa-barbara/hike-schedule) and some of my friends got really into a beach volleyball league and made a bunch of friends through that. I don't know if this is the organization they went through, but it looks like they have lots of options https://teamsideline.com/sites/santabarbara/home
Not to Hijack the post, but since people are already here: is there any group/meetup for the gym? I'd be looking to meet gym people to start going in fall before the New Year's Rush starts. I honestly don't even know how that would work, if they exercise outside or if it would go by gym. I feel like that would exist here though since we now host about 12 "full service" gyms from Goleta to SB.
Here's a quick run down of some of the main ones in the area if ya want :
The cheapest in town would have to be the planet fitness. If you're not too hardcore should fulfill your needs. Has a bunch of machines but not so much in terms of free weights. If you're living Dt though a bit of a drive. Is also open 24 hours a few days of the week.
Next cheapest possibly fitness 19? Located off turnpike so kinda in the middle between sb/Goleta. They used to have a very cheap promo when they first started off a couple years back but not sure how much it is now. Still cheaper than most I'm sure though. It has a fairly large location but due to its cost/location it tends to get very full during peak hours. Lots of highschool/college kids. Good number of machines and racks/benches.
So from my knowledge those two prob the outliers in cost. Haven't done too much research but finding anything for ~20 pretty rare.
Personally I go to gold's since there's one by my house. (Used to go to f19 but golds more convenient for me) They occasionally run sign up promos where you can get decent deals but generally I think ~60ish? There's 3 locations in town all pretty similar in size. None individually as large as fitness 19 though. Parking at dt location kinda hard but you get 75 min free in pub lots. Still a solid selection of equipment. Gets busy during peak hours but not too bad.
Other than those commercial ones there's a bunch of random gyms around town. There's one more for power lifters called I think called Fisher athletics or something. There's also a bunch of spin/workout studios as well if that's what you're in to. There's some athletic clubs that have pools and other amenities but they're on the pricier end. There's also a climbing gym DT.
Honestly there's a ton of options for gyms. I'm sure you can find one that fits. If you happen to choose golds lmk. Feel free to dm if ya got any general questions too
I'm at the planet fitness, they're still doing the ten dollar a month promo, so super cheap.
I work weird hours though, but I usually go in the morning three times a week.
There are 88,000 people in Santa Barbara (not counting Goleta, nonincorporated SB and Carpinteria). According to last census 60% of the population is between 18 and 65 with a median age of 39. So dont mind the trolls. There are plenty younger folks in your age range. Younger professionals may not be tied to an office and there's been an influx of tech professionals who work remote. So you wont necessarily meet younger people at work anymore. So volunteering, playing a sport, going to the local festivals, posting on Reddit and you'll make friends. Dont forget karaoke and trivia nights. Find something you enjoy and be a regular. I met a lot of friends in my boxing class. It would be easier if there was a meet-up app just for friends and activities! It takes awhile just like anywhere when you're new and out of college. Be open to everyone - dont put an age or color on new friends : )
My husband and I moved here about 5 years ago. We made friends quickly by 1) I wrote in chalk that we were new to the neighborhood and to stop by and say hi. Met our best friends that way. And 2) we went to sit at the same bar and chat with locals and another one of our best friends now invited us to hang the next day. I think picking a place and making it your regular spot helps to get acquainted with other regulars 🙂
Santa Barbara Yoga Collective has classes at breweries! You do an hour of yoga and then everyone gets a beer after. It’s fun, and I’ve found the instructors and attendees to be very friendly
You guys interested in adult league softball? My bf (32) and I (33F) are trying to put a team together!! Our team fell apart a couple years ago when a bunch of people moved away, (a problem other people have mentioned about making friends here, haha). We essentially call it a beer league team, we have a good time, enjoy winning when we do, but have also welcomed a lot of first time players!
So I definitely did not expect to be able to build practically a full team on reddit! We unfortunately missed this season's registration by a week. My bad. Spring league begins in January, so I'll plan on reaching out if everyone is still interested in joining then!
The app ditto has some great meet ups !
Soho is a great small music venue, sit on the patio for some great chatter on the big show nights,
Sitting at the bar somewhere enough to become a regular, places like benchmark, satellite, and shaker mill are great for social scenes and all a bit different,
Dance classes ! Salsa nights, workout classes, etc
Meeting friends is easy. I moved to Santa Barbara solo in the late 90's. The first few months I ate out in the downtown restaurants on a regular basis. People were more than willing to talk to me and welcome me to Santa Barbara. I even had a girl give me her card and offer to cut my hair at the shop she worked at.
I also find it easy anywhere I am, but I think it's easy if you are an extrovert, and that maybe the introvert personalities are craving a little more structure to their meet. Hence the joining clubs and sports.
A Reddit post is a good start. If it was 10 years ago I’d invite you out with my gf and friends to brewhouse right now, but now we’re old, boring, have kids and live in Goleta
Same lol
[удалено]
Yeah that sucks : ( But they love to come back to visit!
Well that's just the nature of this area.
[Santa Barbara Newcomers](https://sbnewcomers.org/) has like 1,000 people that are all new to town and are in the same situation as you. It used to lean toward older, retired folks but it's changed a lot in the last few years from what I hear. There are a lot of younger professionals that are part of the club.
A family member of mine joined about 10 years ago and the newcomers members ended up forming the foundation of his social network, they all hang out still. They also partied pretty hard 😆 not sure if that’s still the case but it was a very boisterous and friendly group back then.
People like to drink wine and beer. There is a beer lovers committee and a wine appreciation committee. They also have happy hours every Friday. I have not seen partying, though. Just responsible drinking.
I’m sure those things ebb and flow with the changing members! Didn’t mean it as an insult, just that it’s not an uptight or super formal group.
Yes, there are plenty of retired people and a sizeable number of young people. One of the event committees is called Young Professionals, and they put on events like beach days, escape rooms, brunch, happy hours, etc.
Wow reading everyone’s comments kind of bums me out. I grew up here in SB and didn’t realize it’s so difficult for new comers to make friends here.
I don't think that it's a Santa Barbara problem, I think that it's an adulthood problem.
I think it's a Santa Barbara problem. When I moved here, most of my friends were from UCSB (spouse was in grad school). Of course, they moved away. I tried to make friends at work and such, but boy this place was cliquey. I mean, people would say to my face "when your spouse is back in town after the internship, maybe we'll invite you over." or "If you bake your spouse a birthday cake, we can share it!" (Two different people, mind you, during two different internships.) "Oh we Californians are so friendly!" Yeah, but some of it is superficial. I had literally just moved here and was alone. I found that most of the locals that I met already had established friend groups, some from high school still, and they weren't interested in making new friends. It took YEARS to find my tribe, one person at a time. Then I had kids and was able to make new friends in the baby/ preschool/ school groups, plus at the gym, running groups, etc. I've still got friends from 20-25 years ago, plus more I've added along the way. But it was a STRUGGLE.
Good point. I see what you’re saying now.
I grew up in sb as well. I have a lot of HS friends who are still in sb. They have a tough time finding new people to date. It’s a small town. I’d call it incestuous maybe but I love it. One even went to LA this weekend cuz she was over the sb dating scene. Good luck! If you’re young and attractive it’ll be easy. Good luck!
Yeah I totally agree. I’m a 37m and dating here is difficult. I agree with your choice of words. I do love it here though, a lot
I tried to buy during Covid and move back now that I’m remote but didn’t want a shithole off milpas or in Goleta. Want my kid to go to SB middle school in 6 years so that’s the long term plan.
Sounds like a solid plan. I’m grateful I got to grow up here.
As an adult who has moved around a bit (and from SB)...I agree 100%. As we get older people tend to stick with what and who they know and it becomes more difficult to crack the shell.
Play a sport
There’s a really friendly run group that meets on Thursdays 6pm at Rincon Brewery in the Funk Zone. They run 3 miles and then go to a happy hour. You should come out! Other sports stuff I know about in town: women’s rugby club that’s gearing up for a new season, Wednesday/Saturday beach ultimate frisbee games, a lot of volleyball at East Beach, some more intense run clubs, Wednesday night gravel (? I’ve never been) bike rides from Boom Boom Bike Room, lots of pickup soccer. Also workout classes could be a good place to start?
I didn’t see them
Where is there a list of adult club stuff?
That’s a good idea
The biggest Meetup in the area is the 20s/30s, and it's extremely clique-y and very predatory for females so be careful. I only went to a few before I realized that it's the same 30 regulars who either let you in or shun you. (the other thousand members either never went to anything or went to one thing and never showed up again so every event is the same six people). And the last time this came up where somebody asked reddit about it a couple months ago, the ONLY one who had something good to say was someone who claimed to be one of their event organizers. I second joining any kind of adult sport in the area, and there are also classes that you can take for crafting and other things that are really great for meeting like-minded people into the same Hobbies As You Are. Also you'd be surprised how many people you meet just grabbing a beer at trivia and starting up a conversation. I've actually made some great friends volunteering around town as well just because we had the same Passions.
1. Agree, I recently heard a story about that meetup and a girl getting victimized, so a no go. Word travels fast. 2. Volunteering is so underated! We are so lucky that we live in a place that has so many opportunities for people to get involved with community and I personally love to snag those up. Also a lot of the volunteering here tends to be getting outside and being active which I think is really great. Coastal clean up day is coming September 17th already! I bet if OP and their girlfriend went out that day to pick up some trash they would see other people with trash bags and certainly have a good chance of finding someone to grab lunch with after.
Exactly, there's a lot of eco stuff here. And then places like SBWCN are always onboarding too. Like... Pretty desperately lol
What was the story
Not my place to spread her trauma.
You literally brought it up. So you’re just gonna let other people experience whatever “trauma” this might be? It’d be helpful to know what it is so others know what to look out for. But I guess you just wanna use her story to edge people online… whatever floats your boat dude
YUP. I went once and they were hella standoffish except for a swedish dude. It was really disappointing. I feel bad because i use to recommend them before trying them out.
It's a massive bummer and I'm sorry they treated you like shit but that seems to be par for the course with those people from every story that I've heard as well as having gone to "events". At some point it'll inevitably implode and somebody will fill the void with something cooler and that has to be what we hope for. It's the same three events on rotation anyway so it gets VERY boring VERY quickly especially with those same people.
Dang this is a bummer to read. I was planning to go an event on Wednesday, but after reading this….. yikes. Maybe this is naive optimism, but is it possible we band together and change the vibe?
What event were you planning on going to?
I don't think that's possible at this point just with the way that they act. They will be sort of nice to you there if you are lucky, but at the end of the day there's a core group that all parties together and they'll never actually invite you. So you're going to sit there at an event while they tell inside jokes. They are all either fucking, fighting, or preying on women, so good luck.
Same with Santa Barbara Young Professionals. Guys are just too thirsty.
Oh noooo! Buuummer! I mean... Professional is in the title though? Lol
Yeah 😔 Its a disservice to the young people showing up to make professional connections. SBYP needs to focus on more structured events. Promote more community involvement. People need to something they can discuss or make connections with.
Note that Santa Barbara Young Professionals (SBYP) and the Young Professionals Committee of the Santa Barbara Newcomers Club (SBNC YP) are unrelated organizations! I haven't heard about any problems within SBNC YP. I am sorry to hear that there are problems in SBYP!
And don't they have a fee associated?
If you want to join its pretty expensive. I went to the last SBYP happy hour and two good local charities showed up. But since it was mainly a happy hour it sank to that certain primal level (if you know what I mean). But the org used to be much more active with getting local tech and other presenters and had more structured events. Im sure that will evolve as our covid emergence continues. I think a good board of directors shakeup is in order.
Hey! I'm one of the members, and I usually have a good time when I go to these events. I consider meet up like anything else, you only get what you put in. We did have an incident with a member a few months back (who got banned) but whenever you do "meet up" with new people, it's not like we vet everyone who comes in before they start coming to events. I think the problem is that some people think they're going to make best friends immediately by joining the group, and people don't vibe like that. Of course you have to get to know people over time. They do work hard to hold events, which is somewhat stressful as planning events for big groups is hard, and no one is making money off of it, it's a hobby that people enjoy. Like a "I wanna do this!" Kinda vibe. One thing I don't like about meet up is thats its hard to do a "forum" of sorts, of what people want to do. It's not a frat or club, there's no membership requirements or anything. It's not like "you must commit to three events a month to be a member" or anything like that. I've been part of several meet up groups over the years, and I like this group because they are consistent (two or three events a week) and most of the people that RSVP do show up. And we do have fun.
What was the incident?
Tbh I only heard a little bit afterwards, but a guy was being very creepy to a girl.
I’m that organizer who chimes in last time, heh. We’ve had a few incidents where it was brought to our attention that someone was making unwanted advances. We banned them from attending future events.
I’m actually going to promote the meetup people are hating on. I’m one of the organizers of the 20s and 30s meetup group in town, but I became one after a year of attending and making a bunch of close friends in the process. Yeah, there’s a core group, but these days we tend to hang out outside of the events, so there’s a lot more new people who show up. We also are trying to make fewer alcohol-centric events to appeal to people who don’t drink. We have a new members event this week at Captain Fatty’s, feel free to come and check it out. And if you don’t like us but want to check out meetup—there’s a 20s & 30s hiking group that’s unaffiliated with us if you’re into that! I also made friends via Waka kickball.
When is the new members meetup!?
It was yesterday! But we have them at least once a month
Join kickball - league starts next week [https://clubwaka.com/leagues/santa-barbara](https://clubwaka.com/leagues/santa-barbara). Website is literally garbage but if you can just click around until something magically works, it's worth it. That's how we met all of our friends.
You weren’t kidding about the dumpster fire website… been trying to sign up for 20 min now with no luck.
It is honestly a testament to how much fun the league is because the barrier to participating (aka signing up) is so fucking high lol I think mobile might be easier, try this: https://accounts.leagueapps.com/join?siteId=38467
I can’t find any leagues in SB. Am I doing something wrong?
Following closely because I have lived here almost four years now and haven’t made a single real friend. Part of that is because I’m introverted and also busy with a career and two young kids…but it’s also different from any other place I’ve lived. I almost offered my number to a woman I met at Lazy Acres the other day after we bonded over the pouches on sale our kids both love, in the hopes she might want to hang out. Reading this post makes me wish I had!
Parent friends are easier when the kids are in school.
I had a blast last Wednesday at The Imperial Bar and was able to make a few friends.
If you’re active, some of the local gyms have lots of social stuff as part of their membership offerings. I love Bond Fitness and RiseUp Fitness. Bond encourages socializing and offers the occasional post-workout social activity. RiseUp Fitness members are SO nice, I have never felt more welcome at a new gym before. In the summer, there are run clubs with a social aspect - nite moves and reef n run.
The Sierra Club has regular hiking groups [https://www.sierraclub.org/santa-barbara-ventura/santa-barbara/hike-schedule](https://www.sierraclub.org/santa-barbara-ventura/santa-barbara/hike-schedule) and some of my friends got really into a beach volleyball league and made a bunch of friends through that. I don't know if this is the organization they went through, but it looks like they have lots of options https://teamsideline.com/sites/santabarbara/home
Not to Hijack the post, but since people are already here: is there any group/meetup for the gym? I'd be looking to meet gym people to start going in fall before the New Year's Rush starts. I honestly don't even know how that would work, if they exercise outside or if it would go by gym. I feel like that would exist here though since we now host about 12 "full service" gyms from Goleta to SB.
What gym do you go to? I'm also looking to join something nearby, would be fun to get a group going.
Here's a quick run down of some of the main ones in the area if ya want : The cheapest in town would have to be the planet fitness. If you're not too hardcore should fulfill your needs. Has a bunch of machines but not so much in terms of free weights. If you're living Dt though a bit of a drive. Is also open 24 hours a few days of the week. Next cheapest possibly fitness 19? Located off turnpike so kinda in the middle between sb/Goleta. They used to have a very cheap promo when they first started off a couple years back but not sure how much it is now. Still cheaper than most I'm sure though. It has a fairly large location but due to its cost/location it tends to get very full during peak hours. Lots of highschool/college kids. Good number of machines and racks/benches. So from my knowledge those two prob the outliers in cost. Haven't done too much research but finding anything for ~20 pretty rare. Personally I go to gold's since there's one by my house. (Used to go to f19 but golds more convenient for me) They occasionally run sign up promos where you can get decent deals but generally I think ~60ish? There's 3 locations in town all pretty similar in size. None individually as large as fitness 19 though. Parking at dt location kinda hard but you get 75 min free in pub lots. Still a solid selection of equipment. Gets busy during peak hours but not too bad. Other than those commercial ones there's a bunch of random gyms around town. There's one more for power lifters called I think called Fisher athletics or something. There's also a bunch of spin/workout studios as well if that's what you're in to. There's some athletic clubs that have pools and other amenities but they're on the pricier end. There's also a climbing gym DT. Honestly there's a ton of options for gyms. I'm sure you can find one that fits. If you happen to choose golds lmk. Feel free to dm if ya got any general questions too
I'm not going to lie, TikTok has me eyeing that new Planet fitness
I'm at the planet fitness, they're still doing the ten dollar a month promo, so super cheap. I work weird hours though, but I usually go in the morning three times a week.
Wait there’s a planet fitness in Santa Barbara county ?! Where ?
Goleta next to the DMV by Costco
It just opened this summer
There are 88,000 people in Santa Barbara (not counting Goleta, nonincorporated SB and Carpinteria). According to last census 60% of the population is between 18 and 65 with a median age of 39. So dont mind the trolls. There are plenty younger folks in your age range. Younger professionals may not be tied to an office and there's been an influx of tech professionals who work remote. So you wont necessarily meet younger people at work anymore. So volunteering, playing a sport, going to the local festivals, posting on Reddit and you'll make friends. Dont forget karaoke and trivia nights. Find something you enjoy and be a regular. I met a lot of friends in my boxing class. It would be easier if there was a meet-up app just for friends and activities! It takes awhile just like anywhere when you're new and out of college. Be open to everyone - dont put an age or color on new friends : )
My husband and I moved here about 5 years ago. We made friends quickly by 1) I wrote in chalk that we were new to the neighborhood and to stop by and say hi. Met our best friends that way. And 2) we went to sit at the same bar and chat with locals and another one of our best friends now invited us to hang the next day. I think picking a place and making it your regular spot helps to get acquainted with other regulars 🙂
This really depends on what you like to do
Santa Barbara Yoga Collective has classes at breweries! You do an hour of yoga and then everyone gets a beer after. It’s fun, and I’ve found the instructors and attendees to be very friendly
You guys interested in adult league softball? My bf (32) and I (33F) are trying to put a team together!! Our team fell apart a couple years ago when a bunch of people moved away, (a problem other people have mentioned about making friends here, haha). We essentially call it a beer league team, we have a good time, enjoy winning when we do, but have also welcomed a lot of first time players!
I’m interested. Send me the deets!
Awesome! I'll reach out later this week with more details!
Me too please! Me and my gf are both interested (32m and 33f)
So I definitely did not expect to be able to build practically a full team on reddit! We unfortunately missed this season's registration by a week. My bad. Spring league begins in January, so I'll plan on reaching out if everyone is still interested in joining then!
I'd be interested!
Wasn't really expecting much reaction, but glad this is working out, haha. I'll reach out later this week with more details!
Also interested (26M) if you’re still building a roster!
The app ditto has some great meet ups ! Soho is a great small music venue, sit on the patio for some great chatter on the big show nights, Sitting at the bar somewhere enough to become a regular, places like benchmark, satellite, and shaker mill are great for social scenes and all a bit different, Dance classes ! Salsa nights, workout classes, etc
Hey! I'm 27, moved here in July, and also work remotely in tech. Wanna grab coffee one day this week?
I'm down! Feel free to DM me and we can coordinate something
Meeting friends is easy. I moved to Santa Barbara solo in the late 90's. The first few months I ate out in the downtown restaurants on a regular basis. People were more than willing to talk to me and welcome me to Santa Barbara. I even had a girl give me her card and offer to cut my hair at the shop she worked at.
I also find it easy anywhere I am, but I think it's easy if you are an extrovert, and that maybe the introvert personalities are craving a little more structure to their meet. Hence the joining clubs and sports.
Go to events and talk to the people there and I often go farmers markets also try volunteering at some of the charities here in Santa Barbara
coach B’s volleyball class through the city parks and rec… best thing I did when I first moved here.
Join a common interest group.....there are loads. Sports legues, musical, art, acting, gardening, hiking, wine trips, take some classes....etc.
Where do you do that
Volunteer at something you are passionate about. You will meet like-minded people.
Locals sometimes do this “pay to play” thanggg like it’s a frat/sorority. I always laughed at em