By: Vivian Hare 5/13/26
One such race (picture from AP News)
Have you heard of giant pumpkin kayaking? As you probably guessed, you race a hollowed-out giant pumpkin across a small body of water, or go as far as you can to try and beat the current world record of almost 60 miles. Kayaking in a pumpkin for more than 60 miles! Make sure to learn more by reading this article!
The giant gourds used for kayaking are 800+ pounds of pumpkin. That is about 8 times the average weight of middle school students! They are usually 13-14 feet or even bigger! Imagine having to cut open and hollow out that big pumpkin to race in or to kayak in for days straight! The insides, though, are used for a different purpose. The insides are usually made into pumpkin soup for both the onlookers and the racers.
Have you heard of Gary Kristensen? He is famous for a record-breaking long journey in a pumpkin boat twice, once for sailing more than 26 hours straight for 45! He broke his world record again by kayaking roughly 58 miles in his pumpkin, the Marchflower, which weighed about 900 pounds, and it took roughly 58 hours to do. Pumpkins are not comfy to sit in. He most likely had to crouch in hard, wet, gooey pumpkin skin and endure the splashes.
Duane Hanson, another record-breaking pumpkin kayaker, said, “It was like sitting in a giant, hollowed-out cork – every move I made caused Berta to tilt, so I had to lean the other way to get her back on an even keel.” ‘Berta’ is what he named his 846-pound pumpkin. He paid thousands of dollars to try to get a pumpkin that big, but until Berta, they only got 400-pound pumpkins, which are also huge, but not big enough, and gave them to neighbors for Halloween. Just think of the jack-o-lantern you could make from that!
Duane Hanson in Berta (NBC News)
In conclusion, pumpkin kayaking is an interesting but harsh sport, if it can be called a sport. You can go and see a race at a festival, fair, or such, but I do not recommend trying this sport. If it is now your heart’s desire to pumpkin kayak 20 miles, I’m not going to stop you. But make sure to see this live, and maybe get your hands on some of that pumpkin soup, and see if it is as good as they say.