Tualatin regatta pits growers against pumpkins

Giant pumpkin growers have a fatal attraction to their all-consuming hobby

By Jennifer Clampet

The Times, Oct 25, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JOHN LARIVIERE / For The Times

PUMPKIN PADDLIN' - Chad Epert fights the elements in the 2006 pumpkin regatta.

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TUALATIN – Catch Ron Wilson during the first week in October, and he’ll talk fondly of his giant pumpkin.

He’ll liken cutting the gourd from the vine to the experience of cutting the umbilical cord from a child.

“There’s a moment of hesitation,” he admitted. The five months and hundreds of hours he put toward caring for his pumpkins with soil testing, pollinating the plants by hand and watching them grow sometimes 6 to 18 inches a day all come down to that moment.

But catch Wilson three weeks later, after the competitive weigh-ins, the festivals and shows, and he’ll smile as he wields a knife or saw and guts his prize as it floats in the standing water at Tualatin’s Lake of the Commons.

“By the time of the regatta, you are so burned out,” said the past president of the Pacific Giant Vegetables Growers Association. “This becomes a chance to blow off steam and really have a moment of fun.”

The association is expecting its growers to bring as many as 25 giant pumpkins to Tuala-tin’s 4th annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta.

The regatta is the only one on the West Coast. It puts growers in pumpkin boats for a race around the city’s Lake of the Commons.

The event has slowly grown in popularity as the peculiar competition draws spectators eager to see a giant veggie float. Tualatin’s Parks and Recreation Coordinator Carl Switzer said the city hopes to see as many as 2,000 people turn out for the pumpkin races, which start at noon. Growers will start carving their boats before 10 a.m., and other family entertainment like clowns, face painting, music and pumpkin carving will begin at around 10 a.m.

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