Pumpkin Carving

[MichaelBaranows]

I am in my first underwater pumpkin carving contest this coming weekend.

Rules
1. must use dive tool for carving
2. face can not me drawn on pumpkin before going into water.
3. not templates
4. no bags
5. no holes made or carving above water
30 minute time limit

I am sure that some of you have done this in the past and I am needing some tips and tricks. Plus ideas of what to carve. I was thinking a simple to triangles to make a diver down flag or maybe a shark.

 

[RumBum]

Sounds messy. I would expect low vis and lots of pumpkin mush floating around. Yuck.
I wonder how many people slip up and cut themselves doing this?

 

[AevnsGrandpa]

Having just done this at our clubs annual pumpkin dive, I can tell you it is VERY hard to hold down the pumpkin. My buddy and I ended up anchoring ours under the end of the training platform we were on at 15'. Once we put the top off it wasn't quite as bad but then the fish come in for the attack! We finished ours in about 15-20 minutes and I used about 3/4 of my tank huffing and puffing to get it down and hold it down!

Have fun it is a blast!!!

Jeff

 

[crpntr133]

I don't think the time limit will be an issue, your air supply will.

Get a small pumpkin if possible. I am thinking about 8"-10" in diameter. If you get anything bigger you are talking major weight or a huge job to get it down. I made the mistake last weekend of buying one the size of my head and it took everything, and nine pounds and needed more, to get it down.

I carved the back out of mine and then carved "dive Joe's" in that part. Joe's was the place we were diving. Then did a simple face on the front, that was all I had air for. Didn't have any problems with the fish nor the mess floating around me.

 

[gangrel441]

Wow...those rules are tough...

I just did my first. The rules stipulated that the pumpkin must be gutted before entering the water, paterns may be drawn on the pumpkin before entering, additional weights may be placed inside the pumpkin to counteract bouyancy, and pumpkin carving tools may be used. No carving above water (aside from opening and gutting).

Still, I did find that U/W pumpkin carving is one place were it does pay off to have a machete of a dive knife...

 

[MichaelBaranows]

Plan is to make a rope harness around the pumpkin or a fishing dip net and then weight in down. I have a few buckets of lead at the house(probably 50#-100#). Or tie a pulley off to platform and then pull the pumpkin down to bottom and tie it off.

I have three dive tools that I am going to spend a little time Saturday shapening to make sure that I am ready.

 

[Caver95]

In the Washington Post... the title of the article was "Best Comeback Line
Ever."

In summary, the police arrested Patrick Lawrence, a 22-year-old white male,
resident of Dekalb, GA, in a pumpkin patch at 11:38 p.m. on Friday.
Lawrence
will be charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency, and
public
intoxication at the Gwinnett County courthouse on Monday.

The suspect explained that as he was passing a pumpkin patch he decided to
stop.
"You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around
here for miles. At least I thought there wasn't," he stated in a phone
interview.

Lawrence went on to say that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked
out
a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purposes, cut a hole in it,
and
proceeded to satisfy his need.. "I guess I was just really into it, you
know?"
he commented with evident embarrassment.

In the process,! Lawrence apparently failed to notice a Gwinnett County
police
car approaching and was unaware of his audience until Officer Brenda Taylor
approached him. "It was an unusual situation, that's for sure," said Officer
Taylor. "I walked up to (Lawrence) and he's...just working away at this
pumpkin." Taylor went on to describe what happened when she approached
Lawrence. "I just went up and said, 'Excuse me sir, but do you realize that
you
are screwing a pumpkin?' "He froze and was clearly very surprised that I
was
there, and then looked me straight in the face and said ...

"A pumpkin? Damn ... is it midnight already?"

 

[crpntr133]

Wow...those rules are tough...

I just did my first. The rules stipulated that the pumpkin must be gutted before entering the water, paterns may be drawn on the pumpkin before entering, additional weights may be placed inside the pumpkin to counteract bouyancy, and pumpkin carving tools may be used. No carving above water (aside from opening and gutting).

Still, I did find that U/W pumpkin carving is one place were it does pay off to have a machete of a dive knife...

These rules pretty much take the fun out of it.

I was going to tie about 30# to mine but I was told later that this was against the rules. A pumpkin carving tool makes things a lot easier and you don't have to worry about cutting yourself.

 

[gangrel441]

Wow...this may not be in line with the TOS....

But, on the other hand.....

:11: :laughing: :laughing:

 

[MichaelBaranows]

I was thinking the same thing. I would think most of the fun would be how people sink the pumpkin and the mess of the seeds.

If you can't add 30# how do they want you to sink it.