Hey southern cali folks -
I am moving to San Diego and trying to find a good gym to train in. It looks like there are 3 - any opinions on which one is the best? As in a good place to meet other climbers and not a place to meet gym rats or have a child's birthday party?
thank you!!

When I lived there I preferred Vertical Hold. It was a pretty decent sized gym without too many kids and stuff. The one near downtown is ok, but was a little small and more kids.

I climbed a lot at VH when I lived there. It's a good gym with many lead routes and a nice bouldering area. You will meet some real climbers there.

Surfing is the best training for climbing.

I live in SD and climb at vert hold, but if you are willing to spend the extra $ Mesa Rim is much better. Routes are 2x as long, they have a slackline area, and cracks to climb.

If money is not an issue and its close to where you will be, Mesa Rim is the place to go. It is by far the best gym of the sort in San Diego.

Even though Mesa Rim is newer and has taller walls I like the routes at VH much better. The grades seem more realistic and you actually have to think and do some route finding instead of just going for the next hold.
I climb in the lower 5.10s so I can't speak for how the higher graded routes are set at Mesa Rim. They do have better cracks then VH though.
I believe Robert Buswold was referring to Solid Rock gym near downtown, not VH.
Don't get me wrong Mesa Rim is a good gym for it's size and wall height and has many fun routes, but I think VH has better route setting, from my experience anyways. The prices seem to be pretty similar, but Mesa Rim offers more services as far as yoga, training classes, etc..