Tales from the Logbook--Underwater Pumpkin Carving

 

An old copy of SeaScope, the newsletter of the UCSB Scuba Club, contains the photo shown above of the club’s 1986 Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest and campout at El Capitan State Beach.  Underwater pumpkin carving contests is a staple of autumn diving.  Yes, it is a slightly esoteric activity, but nonetheless a popular one.  I see announcements for these types of events everywhere there are divers and a body of water.  I got my start in Santa Barbara. 

My First Pumpkin Carving

The UCSB Scuba Club held its event every October, usually the weekend before Halloween, sometimes in conjunction with an overnight campout at one of the nearby beach campgrounds.  My first attempt at underwater carving took place on Sunday, October 28, 1984.  A handful of Club members rented 14-foot aluminum fishing skiffs at Goleta pier, two divers to a skiff.  The pier’s crane lowered the boat into the water and a pair of divers boarded each.  We motored as a group to the nearby kelp beds of More Mesa for our dive.  I learned a lot on that dive.  It was pretty much a series of firsts for me—my first dive with my new buoyancy compensator and Conshelf 14 regulator (which I still use); my first dive from a small boat; the first time I operated a small powerboat; my first post class dive with Lisa W; and my first underwater pumpkin carving. 

According to my dive log, this was my 13^th dive, an accurate harbinger of what unfolded.  Underwater visibility was 20+ feet, my maximum depth was 25 feet, and my time underwater was 25 minutes.  My pumpkin carving technique and result left a lot to be desired;  as did my back roll entry and climb over the freeboard exit.  Entry and exit has to be coordinated and between both divers, one on either side.  Any imbalance could partially flood or capsize the boat.   I will leave it to your imagination to fill in the details.  They largely have been purged from my memory.  I do recollect thinking Lisa was less than favorably impressed with my seamanship, dive technique, and boat handling.

Pumpkin Carving in the Later 80's

In the years following, the Club’s pumpkin carving was done from the beach, either as part of a camping trip or as a single day activity.  If a campout was scheduled with the contest, as it was in in 1985 and 1986, El Capitan and Refugio State Beaches worked great.  Judging was somewhat subjective, with each diver both defending their design while criticizing others.  The judging was accomplished with uproarious laughter.  A consensus candidate eventually emerged, usually the most artistic or most bizarre looking.

In 1987, Halloween fell on a Saturday.  The Club scheduled the pumpkin carving contest for for the prior Saturday, October 24th, at Goleta Beach.  I did not participate in the event that year. I had just started my graduate studies program at UCSB and was swamped with readings, weekly essays, seminar presentations and preparing the 30-page seminar papers.  I recall remarking to my roommate at the time, Dean, a junior studying aquatic biology, “I can’t go out and do underwater pumpkin carving with my friends because my homework isn’t done.”

Dean, on the other hand, had no such time management problem.  He was as carefree and as happy-go-lucky as anyone I had known.  Dean did the pumpkin carving dive.  He brought home a decently carved pumpkin and promptly placed it on the porch with a candle inside.  That October was particularly warm.  Almost immediately, fruit flies took up residence in the decaying flesh of the pumpkin.  A few days later their progeny joined the swarm.  Dean could not understand why I wanted to deep six the carcass on Wednesday night with three days left to go before Halloween.  By Thursday morning the pumpkin had the look of a corpse left too long in the sun and the odor of rotting vegetation.  I placed it in a paper trash bag and tossed it in the dumpster.  Dean was a bit upset when he discovered the pumpkin went missing.  I told him that kids had come through the neighborhood the night before and did a grab and smash. 

Underwater Pumpkin Carving Techniques

Pumpkin carving is pretty straightforward on land and most folks over the age of five likely have done it several times.  Underwater carving involves some special considerations.which I learned from that first dive.

1. A pumpkin is a sealed soft tissue squash with a big internal air cavity.  If not vented, it will float.  It is like trying to submerge an inflated volleyball.  The deeper you go the more it resists.  It needs to be opened and gutted prior to descent.  Failure to do so will make for a difficult descent, although I have not heard of a pumpkin imploding due to increased water pressure.   I have known divers who found it necessary to knife their pumpkins while submerging to kill the buoyancy.
2. Sketching the lines of the design with a permanent marker prior to descent helps.  Creativity on a blank slate that is an unmarked pumpkin seldom occurs spontaneously at depth.
3. Even a gutted pumpkin will have slightly positive inherent buoyancy.  Placing a weight inside the cavity will help keep the pumpkin on the bottom during carving.  A diver may want to also be slightly negatively weighted so as to stay solidly on the bottom while carving.
4. A backroll from a boat or beach entry and descent while holding onto a pumpkin is a bit unweildly.  Place the pumpkin in a goody bag for easier transport to the bottom.
5. Kneel on a sand bottom to carve the pumpkin.  This way you are not disturbing the hard bottom habitat and won't end up with urchin spines in your knee.
6. Do not use a dive knife for the carving.  Most knives that divers wore in the 1980s, the big frigging dive sword variety, were more useful for fighting off sharks and as pry tools rather than as precise cutting blades.