Oregon man paddles pumpkin 45.67 miles to break world record
Written by Angie Sharma on November 5, 2024
An Oregon man hollowed out his prized 1,214-pound pumpkin and plunged it into a Washington river for a record-breaking 45.67-mile paddling journey.
Gary Kristensen, a Happy Valley man who has been growing giant pumpkins since 2011, started converting his gargantuan gourds into boats into 2013 to compete in the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, which he has won for the past four consecutive years.
Kristensen hollowed out a pumpkin he dubbed Punky Loafster this year to take on his longtime goal of breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest paddling journey by pumpkin boat.
His 45.67-mile journey down the Columbia River, which took him more than 26 hours, aimed to break the previous record of about 39 miles.
Kristensen said his journey was complicated by wind and unstable waters.
“There were 30 to 35 mile per hour winds about four or five miles into our trip,” he told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “We started at Bonneville Dam, and the waves were pretty intense coming over the top of the pumpkin. I was filling up with water.”
Kristensen used a camera mounted to a broomstick to record his journey and printed the words “it’s real” on the side of the pumpkin to answer the most obvious question that might have been asked by curious onlookers.
Source : UPI News
