20th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving

It was brought to my attention last week while searching for a blog post that we never did a recap of the Underwater Pumpkin Carving last year. Can someone please explain how this happened? The best explanation that we have come up with is… We had the Chili Cookoff, the next day the underwater pumpkin carving, and then it was off to DEMA. Plus we were gathering recipes/pictures/stories for the cookbook, followed by pictures for the calendar and whew… we just plum forgot.

The question is… why did no one point this out? Last week when we were working on the 2018 Spring Sale Post, I was on the hunt for this blog post, why I can’t remember, but I realized it wasn’t here. So… I figured today would be the perfect day to recap last fall’s underwater pumpkin carving. I mean the weather is similar, right?

20th Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving

October 22 started out as a very cool day in October. In fact, it was flat out cold! And when you add being beside the water and getting the wind blowing up off the water, brrrrrr! The morning started out with some open water certifications and followed up with the Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving. Those who partook in the open water certifications were frozen! So we took them in the tent with the heater to warm up. They were troopers!

When the morning started we weren’t sure many were going to show up for the carving. For a good long while, there were about 3 people signed up. Not to worry, the carving started at 1 pm, it warmed up a smidge, and they came! In fact, we had 10 carvers, and a few more divers than that. WHAT?!?! It was cold! 🙂 I guess it just goes to show you, if there’s food, they will come…?

So then during the carving… We had some Fin Dancing…. going on above water. Is that what you would call it?

Meanwhile, back on land…

The Pumpkins

Now, if you’ve never been to the pumpkin carving, here’s how it goes. At 1 pm, you enter the water with your pumpkin. You carve underwater. You have 45 minutes or 500 psi (whichever comes first). Then divers come up, pumpkins are assigned numbers, and the participants go to voting. The only judges are those who participate.

Then scores are tabulated and results are announced, but first… there’s always time for a selfie…

The 2017 Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contestants.

And then you have this… when trying to get a photo of the winners… Hi Boomer!

Left to right: Boomer Baugh, Charli Jo Baugh, Jesse Noah, Justin Walkinshaw, Jim Jones, and Rich Cawley

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