Hawaii-Guide.com • Independent Since 2002

John C. Derrick

Founder & Editor-in-Chief of HawaiiGuide
Certified Hawaii Destination Expert • Guidebook Author • 24 Years Guiding the Islands
Explore HawaiiGuide My Hawaii Story Read The Logs Work With Me
John C. Derrick at Kalalau Beach, Kauai, Hawaii

Back in 2003, classmates at the University of South Carolina just called me "the Hawaii guy." One trip to the Islands in May 2002 - my 50th state, at age 21 - rewired my life. I came home, taught myself to build for the web, and launched Hawaii-Guide.com. Twenty-four years later, I never really stopped being that guy: HawaiiGuide is now one of the leading independent Hawaii travel resources on the web, welcoming 15M+ visitors a year and helping tens of millions of travelers plan the trip of a lifetime.

I'm a Certified Hawaii Destination Expert, a Hawaii guidebook author, and - between island trips - a systems builder writing about AI, philosophy, and neurodivergence from our home in South Carolina, where Victoria and I run our family of ventures.

Pictured: Kalalau Beach, Nā Pali Coast, Kauai

What I Do

One career, built around one place. I've spent a quarter century helping people experience Hawaii - and I build the systems, writing, and tools that make that possible.

HawaiiGuide

Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Hawaii-Guide.com, Hawaii's leading independent travel guide since 2002. Island-by-island guides, original maps, live conditions, and trip-planning tools - what we call HawaiiGuide Intelligence: the Islands, in real time.

Hawaii Guidebooks & Expertise

Certified Hawaii Destination Expert with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and author of Hawaii guidebooks, visitor guides, and maps. My Environmental & Physical Geography background - including climate research and NOAA weather-station work - still powers our weather and hurricane-season coverage.

The Logs

The writing side of my brain: essays on AI, philosophy, neurodivergence, and systems architecture. A digital lab notebook from the same 25 years of building that produced HawaiiGuide.

Fractional CTO & Web Development

The craft behind the guide, available to select small businesses: technical leadership, AI adoption, legacy modernization, and agentic engineering - directing AI coding agents to ship production systems.

Explore Hawaii-Guide.com My Hawaii Story Browse The Logs FCTO & Developer Services

HawaiiGuide by the Numbers

Independent since 2002. No corporate parent, no outside investors - just two decades of firsthand island research.

2002
Founded - Independent Ever Since
15M+
Annual Visitors to HawaiiGuide
200K+
Email Subscribers
10s of M
Travelers Helped Since 2002

From "the Hawaii Guy" to HawaiiGuide

At the University of South Carolina, classmates knew me as "the Hawaii guy." Twenty-four years later, the nickname became a career.

May 2002

First trip to Hawaii at age 21 - my 50th state. One trip changed everything.

2003

Hawaii-Guide.com is born - free, in-depth Hawaii travel information. Around USC campus, I'm already "the Hawaii guy."

2004

Graduate from the University of South Carolina in Environmental & Physical Geography, after undergraduate climate research and NOAA weather-station analyst work - the science behind HawaiiGuide's weather coverage to this day.

2007

HawaiiGuide begins working with local Hawaii businesses, tour operators, and accommodation providers - partnerships that continue nearly two decades later.

April 2011

Victoria and I marry on Kauai - of course we did.

2012

A once-in-a-lifetime technical trek deep into Wai'ale'ale Crater on Kauai to touch the back wall of the "Blue Hole," where the Wailua headwaters begin.

2014

I leave my VP of Operations role to take HawaiiGuide full-time. Victoria joins in 2016 as President & Publisher.

Today

HawaiiGuide Intelligence: the HawaiiGuide OS and web app, HawaiiGuide Today briefings, live ocean, weather, trail, and volcano conditions, itinerary tools, and audio drives - the Islands, in real time.

Read the Full Hawaii Story

Our Ventures

The businesses Victoria and I build and operate full-time

HawaiiGuide
Founder & Editor-in-Chief • Est. 2002

The flagship: Hawaii's leading independent travel guide. 15M+ annual visitors, 200K+ subscribers.

hawaiiguide.com →
GuideofUS
President • Parent Company

Parent entity managing our family of digital publications and platforms.

guideofus.com →
Garden & Bloom
Co-Founder (with Victoria)

Gardening and home lifestyle publication. Growing techniques, garden design, and sustainable practices.

gardenandbloom.com →
GroveTop Studio
Founder • Creative Studio

Photography, design, and digital media production across all our ventures.

grovetop.com →
SoilWrangler
Co-Founder • Regenerative Gardening

Family-run regenerative gardening shop. Soil amendments and pure red wigglers, shipped nationwide.

soilwrangler.com →
CritterCute
Co-Founder • Art & Animals

Creative work celebrating the unique personalities of every creature, born from a lifelong love of animals.

crittercute.com →
See All Ventures →
New Guide

Escape Your Legacy CMS

Stop paying $300-$5,000+/year for hosting and plugins. My step-by-step guide walks you through migrating to a free, lightning-fast static site - no coding required.

Read the Full Guide - Free
Let's connect

Planning Hawaii? Or Building Something?

If you're headed to the Islands, everything I know lives at Hawaii-Guide.com. If you're a business that needs a Fractional CTO or web developer, I do that too - reach out to Victoria below.

Start Planning at HawaiiGuide
Victoria Derrick Victoria is my business partner and wife. She handles client coordination so I can focus on delivering exceptional results.

Get In Touch

Victoria Derrick Victoria handles all inquiries and will be your direct point of contact.
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