‘I would always gaze out over the horizon and imagine myself floating off in a balloon.’

Jay Kimball says he sells magic. Kimball, a 42-year-old Del Mar resident, offers people the chance to glide in a hot-air balloon. The tranquility that often accompanies ballooning, he says, gives it an almost mystical aura. In the late 1970s, Kimball and a few of his high-school buddies got the notion to sell hot-air balloon rides. The result, Napa Valley Balloons, was a blossoming success. In 1982, Kimball moved to Del Mar where he started a sister company, A Beautiful Morning. When he’s not running the business, Kimball competes against other balloonists. He recently won the California State Championships. He was seeded third for the national championships in Baton Rouge, La., which began Saturday. Kimball was interviewed at his A Beautiful Morning office by Times staff writer Terry Rather and photographed by Bruce K. Huff.

All my life I have been interested in aviation. I can remember as a child in school not wanting to be in school. I would always gaze out over the horizon and imagine myself floating off in a balloon. It’s amazing how that has manifested itself. It’s almost like it was meant to happen.

I originally got into sail planing when I was 19. I really didn’t think I’d be interested in any other form of aviation; sail planing is so pure, so clean. Then I took a balloon ride when I was 29. I literally went out the next day and bought one, I loved it so much.

At first, it was the uniqueness of ballooning that attracted me to it. Six of us bought a balloon as a group and did it as a sports club. We all contributed to the funds to buy the aircraft and support it and pay for all its replacements and repair. Next thing you know, Napa Valley started growing up as a tourist center. So we’d be out there flying, and, every time we’d land, we’d have all these tourists coming up to us, saying, “How can we get a ride?”

So, after about a year and a half of sport flying around the Napa Valley, we decided to start advertising around for balloon rides. It immediately caught on and took off like wildfire.

Together with three of my high school partners, we put together one of the first rides businesses in the country. We incorporated, went big time and bought a whole fleet of balloons. Now, it has evolved into one of largest rides companies in the world.

I came down here in 1981 and started A Beautiful Morning--in Del Mar on my own. It’s been prospering ever since.

I figured, if I’m going to spend my time, then I might as well spend it doing something I love doing. That’s one thing about time: No matter how much money you have or spend, you can’t buy your time back. So you might as well do something you love doing.

Ballooning brings happiness to people. Everybody who comes through my office and goes flying with us, well, you can see when they leave the reward in their faces. It’s rewarding dealing with people on a positive level every day.

I always explain to people that I want them to experience it because it is such an outrageous experience. I can’t explain it. It’s because there’s no sensation. It’s almost as though you’re watching it on television. You’re moving with the air.

I get people who have a fear of heights, who start getting weak at the knees just from climbing a ladder, every day. No matter how high you are, whenever you look down, you just don’t get that feeling. There’s no way to explain it. It’s just the serenity and peacefulness of floating on the wind that takes away all fear.

I love anything that has to do with aviation, and I love sharing it with people and watching their enthusiasm. It’s all magic.

Ballooning is now so popular. Last year, both companies flew over 12,000 passengers. You can go outside now on any Saturday or Sunday, and you’ll see 25 to 30 balloons in the sky.

The challenge for me now is creating new and different marketplaces. I’m working on two- and three-day expeditions, where I would take people on wild adventures like flying across the Sierras or across Mt. Shasta.

Ballooning is a great sport and a great industry. I hope to be able to take it on to another level.