Monterey Skydive Experience

A first skydive slots into the biggest life moments category somewhere between college graduation and wedding. For such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience pick the very best first San Francisco skydiving experience.

Skydive Monterey Bay’s mission is to offer the best first jump adventure for those looking to skydive near San Jose and San Francisco. Our coastal jump location, our airplane, and operational procedures are purpose-designed to provide the best California skydiving experience.

Monterey skydive views may expand your perceptual parameters. At the very least, they will italicize a life-defining moment. Visuals of Pebble Beach, Big Sur, Monterey Bay dunes, and Santa Cruz boardwalk are within sightlines. On extra magical skydives, you may even spot some whales and dolphins migrating up the coastline. It doesn’t happen every day but as the closest California skydiving center to the coast and next to one of the most active ocean mammal migratory channels, it’s probably your best chance.

With an award-winning view, you’ll need some extra moments to absorb it all. That’s why we pioneered high-altitude skydiving in California. High altitude skydives equate to more freefall time. It has become so popular that other Bay Area skydive centers began promoting the world’s highest skydives. But we continue to be the only San Francisco skydiving option to offer 18,000-foot jumps on every jump, every day of the week, with no restrictions or minimums.

Rocket 🚀 Rides

The main reason we can do the world’s highest first jump every day is that we operate the World’s Fastest Skydiving Airplane. Within the skydiving world, It is a rocket ship!

Your flight aboard our Super King Air 200 to your jump altitude of 18,000 feet will take just 8-10 minutes. That’s about the perfect amount of time; just enough to savor the ocean views, but not too much to let the anticipation run loose.

The Super King Air 200 is one of the largest skydiving airplanes with a capacity of 21 jumpers. It’s big enough to take the whole squad (groups of up to 10 in one flight) so you can share your skydive experience with your besties. Its carrying capacity, coupled with its fast turnarounds (take off to landing time) means that Skydive Monterey Bay can skydive with really large groups in a fast and efficient timeframe.

Forever Freefalls!

Well, it might not be a forever freefall but our 18,000-foot first skydive is a monster freefall!

That’s anywhere between 5000 – 8000 feet of extra freefall compared to other California skydiving jump options. We offer 18,000 foot jumps on every flight, with more than 98% of all jumpers every month skydiving from 18,000 feet.

That means freefalls almost as long as two lengths of the Golden Gate Bridge, or 12 times longer than the SalesForce Tower, San Francisco’s tallest building. If you were to measure your freefall distance, you would need to piece together 520 standard tape measures! But standard skydive freefalls, would only require 200-320.  What we’re trying to say here is Skydive Monterey Bay’s freefalls are super long!

With a YOLO-worthy 90-seconds of bliss-inducing freefall, we skydive higher and longer than any other skydiving center. You’ll appreciate the extra freefall while attempting to balance large doses of feel-good neurochemicals, brand new sensory experiences, the feeling of human flight, and gorgeous, natural views of Big Sur, Monterey Bay beaches, and the Pacific Ocean.

Our location and our super-powered airplane allow us to do the every day World’s Highest Skydive from 18,000 feet above the ground. It takes a hot minute to adjust to a brand new world. With most skydives, that’s all you get. Freefalls are 50%-100% longer at Skydive Monterey Bay, but at the price of a standard Bay Area skydive.

Parachuting in Paradise

All good things must come to an end, even the world’s longest freefall for first-time jumpers. But every ending is a new beginning. That is very true when it comes to skydiving. While freefall offers high-intensity, adrenaline-inducing sensations of weightlessness and human flight, the parachute flight offers a completely different set of sensory stimuli.

Parachute flight returns the sensations of weightiness, speed, and perspective. It quite literally provides a different perspective; you’ll be positioned upright (or vertical) as opposed to a “belly to earth” (or horizontal) position.

Modern parachutes are extremely maneuverable with a high upper range of performance. Either a wild rollercoaster-type ride or a zen, floaty, sightseeing descent back to the ground is possible.

Talk about parachuting over paradise! While under the parachute, you’ll be surrounded by incredible visuals: Carmel Highlands and historic Monterey, one of the longest stretches of uninterrupted coastline in California with towering dunes and, looking inland, the Santa Lucia Mountain range climbing 2500 feet to the sky. With the closest landing area to the beach, you might spot whales and dolphins playing in the ocean below if we get lucky. If not, you will still be guaranteed incredible ocean views. Ultimately, you never really experienced a place until you get an aerial visual of it from outside of an airplane.

Leading Location

Skydive Monterey Bay is the best Bay Area skydive location. It is easily accessible from all Bay Area cities.  

Skydivers near San Francisco can make the 80-minute drive down the coast on Highway 1.

Skydive Monterey Bay is the best skydive center near San Jose. We may not be the closest skydive center to San Jose, but it’s well worth an extra 15-20 minutes driving.

Those interested in skydiving near Santa Cruz can be at Skydive Monterey Bay in 30 minutes with jump times and schedules that typically go against heavy traffic flow in Moss Landing.