By Ed Zieralski
STAFF WRITER

January 5, 2008

Glenn Millen said the inventor of the four-stroke engine that drives his Surfango PowerKayaks is a man who grew up poor in China.

Mike Rui is a former design engineer for the Ford Motor Co.

“He was in Hawaii on vacation and noticed that some of the older members of his group didn't go kayaking because they didn't think they could paddle as much as the younger people,” Millen said. “He designed this, and now it's being manufacturered for us in China, where Mike is from. He grew up there and was very poor. He said he used to fish off all kinds of makeshift boats that he made out of various containers.”

Millen will be at the San Diego Boat Show today and tomorrow. The show hours today are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and tomorrow 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. In-water area closes at 6 p.m. each day.

Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for youth 13-15 and kids 12 and under free when accompanied by an adult. Active military are free.

Junior waterfowl hunts

The San Diego City Lakes is sponsoring a Youth Waterfowl Hunt at Barrett Reservoir on Feb. 2 for 18 youth hunters. The hunt is open to kids 15 and under. A nonshooting adult 18 or older must accompany the youth hunter. The 18 reservations will be by random lottery. Applicants should send a postcard with their name, address, phone number and age to: San Diego City Lakes, 12375 Moreno Ave., Lakeside, CA 92040. Postcards must be received by Jan. 22.

A drawing will be held Jan. 23, with winners notified by phone. Payment for each reservation is $20 and must be received at the above address by Jan. 28. For more information, call the city lakes office at (619) 668-2050, Monday through Friday.

Lake Cuyamaca also is sponsoring a Junior Waterfowl Hunt on Feb. 2, but the deadline to get applications in is Monday. It's a free hunt and open to seven junior hunters, who will be assigned to a blind with an experienced volunteer waterfowl hunter. Juniors learn about hunting safety, setting decoys, calling birds, using dogs to retrieve downed birds and all the other aspects of waterfowl hunting. Send a postcard with the junior hunter's name, address, phone number, age and hunting license number to: Lake Cuyamaca Junior Waterfowl Hunt, 15027 state Route 79, Julian, CA 92036. For additional information please call (760) 765-0515.

Lobster report cards

Beginning next season, hoop-netters and divers who fish for lobsters will be required to fill out report cards each time they go fishing. Sturgeon fishermen and abalone divers get detachable tags, three for the annual bag limit for sturgeon and 24 for the annual bag limit for abalone. But lobster divers and hoop-netters will get lobster report cards, at a cost of $7.50 each, that will have 56 lines to record each lobster fishing trip. On each line, the divers or hoop-netters must record the date, the gear used, the location code, and the number of lobster retained, even if they caught or netted none. The Department of Fish and Game will get both catch numbers and amount of effort the recreational divers and hoop-netters expend on lobsters. There is no limit on the number of cards divers or hoop-netters may buy, because there is no annual recreational bag limit on lobsters. Fishermen are limited to one sturgeon and one abalone report card per person in order to assure adherence to the annual bag limits.

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Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com

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