My wife and I did Monterey a few years back. It was a blast. I think it was an anniversary so we were like 45? I remember the staff trying to hype up things "READY!!!" "LETS GO!!!!!" Etc. I am immune to hype, I was on a submarine and felt totally safe with the skydiving crew, no trepidation so no need for the hype. There is an altitude limit that the companies are supposed to jump from (correct me if I am wrong) and everyone in the plane including my wife jumped - I was left alone in the plane with the last 2 instructors and the pilot. Shift in clouds if I remember correctly, but the a hole opened up. Being ex-military I could sense the "Thanks for coming to happy fun time skydiving adventure" rhetoric for 99% of paying customers was quickly replaced by "It's a beautiful day, damn, we should jump from higher but we have this "civilian" on board." I forget what the conversation was but I remember them being excited to jump from a higher altitude - the only problem was me - and I looked at them, swirled my finger in the air, and said after a few winks - "Higher!" They were stoked, don't know how many laws we broke but that was an awesome experience. We dove through a hole in the clouds. Fantastic. Go make a memory Have Fun! More on reddit.com

I’m a competitive skydiver. Lodi is known as probably the most dangerous drop zone in the world. 99% of the drop zones in the US (and even some in other countries) are part of the USPA. The USPA was created so that skydivers could create rules to police themselves instead of having laws passed by people who know nothing about skydiving. Lodi is not a member of USPA and does not follow any of their rules or guidelines. Functionally, they have no rules other than every man for himself. I don’t know how everyone there hasn’t been charged with negligent homicide a dozen times over. More on reddit.com

You won't be jumping by the golden gate bridge.

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You listed off mostly tandem-focused drop zones. There's lots of those in California. Drop zones worth going to between LA and SF are Taft (great fun jumping scene), santa Barbara (less fun jumpers, but a fun dz nonetheless), skydance and skydive California - These two are the top drop zones in northern california. Byron Bay is also a good dz. Have fun! Cheers More on reddit.com