How did Fall get here so fast? In the blink of an eye it’ll be over. Holy cow! Can you believe that we are over halfway through the month of October? October, did I just say October? Why yes, yes I did. That means that it is time for the 18th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving.
As with all events that we participate in, this year’s Underwater Pumpkin Carving brought some great stories, from the great fashion statements to Boomer Baugh trying to get his pumpkin underwater. (Yes, we have video of that one, now if Charli Jo Epperly could have had a video camera running from under the water so we could have had both views!)
Our morning started out kind of overcast and in the upper 40’s but by late afternoon the sun was out and the weather wasn’t too bad. Anywhere from t-shirt to a light weight jacket or sweat shirt and it was pretty comfortable.
The morning started out with certifying a class of Divers. Congratulations to the new open water divers: Bryon Ezell, Yolanda Ezell, Charli Jo Epperly, Brandon Mee, Alex McKinley and Billie McKinley.
Also Congratulations to Mitch Hushak for completing Solo Diver and Dry Suit Diver.
While Grady and Dan took care of the scuba certifications, Deb stayed dry to start getting people signed up for the underwater pumpkin carving that was to start at noon. Karen and I jumped in and helped with the cooking of the chili and spaghetti. The spaghetti was for spaghetti red. We had 2 different people with us, one from Alaska and one from California who mentioned that they’d never heard of that. The comment was, “That must be a Midwest thing.” . 
And you know the saying, if there’s food, they will come… Lol. 
As stated every year, the pumpkin carving starts at 1pm, you have 45 minutes to get your pumpkin, carved and back up or if you hit a psi of 500 you must come up.
There was some excitement in getting a pumpkin down underwater this year. Anyone who was underwater minus Charli Jo didn’t know about it until we came back up but I guess it was quite the show for all those who were on land. And thanks to Dan La Due, we have a video. Sorry, I have to share the video Boomer, but we still love you! (by the way, Dan already shared it on facebook so technically, I’m ok, right? haha)
Good news is Boomer finally got down and was able to carve his pumpkin! And so did the rest of us. Now being the blogger, I have blogged about this twice, but never tried it so this year I changed that. I’ll tell you they over weighted me to help get my pumpkin down and I still couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the trouble that poor Boomer did though, I just gave it to my darling husband, Mark, and asked him to get it down for me. That’s how you do it people! haha .
The joke after all the carving was done is we all had to take our pumpkins back out and pick up all the insides 
Once everyone got back up, then it was time to start voting on who will win. 
And now for your 18th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Winners:
Best Effort – Annie Olsen
Ugliest – Mike Steele 
I should mention it was a tie between 2nd and 3rd, therefore a tie breaker had to be performed.
3rd Place – Tiffany Hayworth (also the blogger/photographer needs to be fired for this photo!)
2nd Place – Justin Walkinshaw 
1st Place – Dan Hayworth 
And a photo of her 1st, 2nd and 3rd place or should I say, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st. You be the judge . Justin is in a Hayworth Sandwich… haha. (Please laugh, let me know I’m kind of funny.. haha) 
And now…. the finale…
A close up look of the pumpkins:
And the 14 participants for the 18th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving. 
The weather was beautiful. The company was fabulous. The diving conditions weren’t bad at all, a nice balmy 68 degrees and the thermocline wasn’t hit until around 50 feet or so, so the water was the same pretty much all over our diving cove.
And check out this video by Mike Vandergrift!