Get Ready to Pedal Around Catalina

Capacity’s only 500, so make your reservations now for the second annual Catalina Island Bicycle Ride.

The $40 entry fee ($35 for children and $35 per person for groups of two or more) only begins to cover the costs for each rider although so much is being donated. “It’s marvelous,� said Gail Burke, who helps promote the ride for the benefit of the Avalon Schools Computer Fund. “Our expenses are zero, thanks to the people and companies who’ve donated their services.�

Bicycles will be transported by a landing craft, donated by Two Harbors, and by freight container via Catalina Freight Lines. Passengers will be transported in a Catalina Cruises charter boat leaving San Pedro at 7 a.m. and returning at 8 p.m.

Once on Catalina, there’s a choice of three inland routes, ranging from 15 to 35 miles. Entry fees cover transportation, refreshments, door prizes and a trip to the summit.

“We had 350 cyclists last year,� Burke said, “and had to turn away 300. The computer program--it’s approaching state-of-the-art status--took in $8,000. We’re hoping for $20,000 this year.

“And what could be more fun? A ride through unspoiled land, with buffaloes, goats, wild boar. Clean air! Come aboard!�

Call (213) 510-1745 or (213) 510-1520 and hike up your pants leg.

Good Drivers Get Tickets

There must be a moral somewhere.

According to Arnold Abrams, president of Driver Safety Schools, traffic violators who have opted for traffic school will get a chance at Abrams’ schools to “turn bad driving habits into good ones,� and they can become millionaires to boot.

Upon completion of the Department of Motor Vehicles-approved course, the erstwhile violator will receive not only a snazzy certificate but a free ticket for the California Lottery.

Getting His Feet Wet

Weather permitting, David Moe will walk on water Saturday.

Moe, 38, of Capistrano Beach hopes to leave from Avalon around midnight and arrive at Woody’s Wharf in Newport Beach by noon, wearing a pair of “Skijaks,� 12-foot plastic skis said to be “floatable,� or so he hopes.

Moe, founder of the snow-ski magazine Powder, also sand-skis, kayaks, sails, climbs mountains, backpacks, surfs, hunts, fishes and goes off cliffs on hang gliders. So what does he do in his spare time? “Well,� Moe said, “I play the piano a bit . . . “

An Obstacle Course

Everybody talks about the handicapped, but how many do anything about it?

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising did this week, during the opening class of “Space Planning for the Handicapped and Elderly� with a curriculum designed by Debbie Lowrey.

“What we hoped to do,� Lowrey said, “was increase these future designers’ sensitivities by having them stay in wheelchairs while shopping in stores, making purchases, having lunch, maneuvering into elevators and asking directions to handicap facilities.�

Students have been asked to write their observations, which will be read aloud on Monday, but already Lowrey and her wards have gotten a pungent taste of chair-bound life.

“They had a hard time with the elevators, and grappling with the heavier doors,� she said. Then there were the people who pointedly hurried out of their way, or just stared--though they found that a lot of people were helpful.

“You can read all you want about the handicapped but there’s nothing like being there. It was a real eye-opener.�