Dropzones near SF Bay Area Bay Area Skydiving - Byron airport - King Air - Takes all kinds. Usually good vibe. Wind frequently too high. Skydive Hollister - PAC750 - Fun - Landing area is a 15-minute drive from the airport.
Surf City - Watsonville - C185 - Due to tight landing areas, don't often do fun jumpers. Great view. Skydive Monterey Bay - Marina airport - King Air - Tends to be tandem mill, but you can get some fun jumps in. Weather can be an issue with the marine layer (low cloud). One of the best views in skydiving. San Jose - Actually South County / San Martin airport between Morgan Hill and Gilroy - C182 - Great vibe. Mostly tandem so far but welcomes fun jumpers. Skydive California - Private airport off I5 near Tracy - C206 last time I was there - New, fun, fast growing DZ. Welcomes all jumpers. Tell Gareth to F___ Off anyway. Skydance/Davis - Yolo county airport - Cessna Caravan or PAC750, depending on what Ray has around - Welcomes all types. Lodi - Mostly Otters. Used to have a Caravan. (Ow! Too soon?) - Secret skydiver playground. Nuff said. Skydive Sacramento - PAC750 I think. Haven't jumped there so can't comment. There are or have been DZs at Cloverdale, Petaluma and Santa Rosa, but I've only driven by.

Skydive California. Great drop zone. Very good AFF program and instructors.

My wife and I had a great time skydiving down in Watsonville, which isn't all that far from San Jose. The skydives take place right on the coast, so half of your view is land and the other half is the Pacific ocean. We went with https://www.santacruz-skydiving.com/ but there are likely other operators in the same area. Predictably, there's some upsell on the photo and/or video packages (you can't bring your own GoPro or whatever). We decided to get the photos, but to skip the video (they will always record and let you see all the photos and videos first, so you can decide if it's worth it based on what you see).