His pumpkin voyage is the result of years of growing and competing with giant pumpkins.
Gary Kristensen, a real estate appraiser from Happy Valley, Oregon, grew an impressive 1,224-pound pumpkin and spent 26 hours paddling it down the Columbia River. Starting from North Bonneville, Washington, he travelled 73.50 km (45.67 miles) to Vancouver, Washington, setting a new world record for the longest journey by pumpkin boat, according to the Guinness World Records.
The 46-year-old completed his journey over 26 hours from 12 to 13 October aboard his hand-carved vessel, “Punky Loafster.”
According to the Guinness World Records, Gary has grown giant pumpkins since 2011, and in 2013, he carved his first boat-sized pumpkin to compete in the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, which he’s won for the last four years. Gary, from Happy Valley, Oregon, said: “This record attempt was a challenge I had long considered, finally deciding to pursue it this year when I grew a pumpkin suitable for the journey.”
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“Punky Loafster” was pollinated on 14 July and harvested on 4 October, then officially weighed and measured at Bauman’s Harvest Festival in Gervais, Oregon, on 5 October.
It had a circumference of 429.26 cm (169 in) and weighed 555.2 kg (1,214 lb). That’s about the weight of an adult dromedary camel or a grand piano. On 11 October, Gary carved the pumpkin into a boat and mounted a camera to it with a broomstick so he could record his journey, as per GWR.
Gary told us: “After a couple hours of paddling, the wind had strengthened to 56 km/h (35 mph), and waves were starting to come over the sides of the pumpkin. A safe beach directly across the Columbia from Multnomah Falls was identified for landing the pumpkin.”
“Landing was difficult because there was thick vegetation in the water that would not allow the pumpkin to easily float through.”
He made the most of that downtime, though.
“On the beach, I used an empty soup can to carve out more pumpkin meat, hoping to make the pumpkin float better for the rest of the journey,” he told GWR. “This reduced weight helped the pumpkin float a bit better for waves.”
As he began the second leg of his journey, Gary expected to paddle until he found a safe beach he could camp on overnight.
