(ambient music) - My name is Gary Kristensen and I hold the Guinness World Record for the longest journey in a pumpkin boat paddling.

(Gary laughs) - [News reporter] There is a new world record attempt for most miles paddled in a pumpkin, and the paddler who did it landed right in Vancouver, Washington.

- [Gary] Come on back.

Last year, I set off on a voyage down the Columbia in October, and I learned on that trip that you need current.

And the best current in the Columbia River is gonna be late May, early June, usually, when you got a lot of snow melt.

So how do I get a pumpkin in June?

Usually pumpkins are ready in October.

So, I decided I'm gonna start a pumpkin in January.

Something I've never seen anybody else, at least not in this climate, in this area, do it before.

Usually if you plant a plant too early, they just don't grow.

Fingers are crossed.

I'm attempting to set the world record again because I feel like I coulda gone farther the first time.

(playful music) (wind rattling As of today, this pumpkin is 46 days old from the time it was a flower and it's now 530 pounds.

- Friction resistance.

- Yeah.

- [Jim] To grow giant pumpkins you gotta be wired a little bit differently anyway, because it takes a lotta work to get one this big.

And Gary is just wired a little bit different than the rest of us.

(chain ratcheting) - [Gary] We're fully hanging.

Whoa!

(laughs) (tools scraping) This year I had to come up with a name for the boat and because the pumpkin was a flower in March, I decided to call it a Marchflower.

(gravel crunching) So I'm gonna put all of this stuff in here.

- Did you bring your golf clubs?

- [Gary] All right.

It says it's recording.

Guinness requires a certain amount of video every hour.

So by mounting the time lapse camera, I'm able to get video of the entire journey.

- Let's get this underway.

Thank you guys for coming.

Keep coming.

All right.

Stop right there.

All right.

I'm starting to float.

- [Onlooker] Dude, that current is booking it.

- [Gary] I'm starting at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and I'm hoping to paddle to Astoria and that's about three times as far as my first journey, if I make it all the way.

(Gary laughs) Paddling a pumpkin is much more challenging than paddling a kayak.

I could easily just tip my weight, the whole thing rolls right over.

If you're in a kayak, the paddle plants in the water, you pull it back and the kayak just slides forward.

And when you do that with a pumpkin, the paddle moves and the pumpkin does not.

And it just feels like you get nowhere.

It is really difficult to paddle a pumpkin, - [Dave] Bassically, whatever he needs, that's what I'm here for.

When he's hungry, throw him some food.

Make sure he's staying hydrated.

Ultimately, just making sure he's safe.

- Thank you.

- It's already open.

- Alright.

Thank you.

- [Gary] Dave is the best of friends.

He's the guy that's willing to go on a crazy adventure with me.

It would not be a safe journey without his support.

- [Dave] So, if you wanna stay left of the rock and go straight, you can do that.

You'll be fine.

His meal prep, it's dialed in.

(container clicking) Chef Boyardave.

- [Gary] I prepared all my meals in advance just to make it super easy for Dave to open the cooler and just grab a meal and hand it to me.

- [Dave] Do you think you're steady enough?

- [Gary] I don't know.

Got it?

- [Dave] That's you.

- Aw... - [Dave] Now you gotta hold it with one hand.

Oh, it's making me nervous.

(laughs) (playfully pensive music) - [Dave] OK, so in the tub that says my clothes, there's some long sleeve shirts.

So I've been in the pumpkin for 10 hours at this point.

And I'm tired, I'm cold, I'm wet.

And there's pumpkin guts stuck to my pants.

- [Dave] So yeah, go to the left of that marker.

- [Gary] My plan is to try to secure it for the night.

I'm starting to get freezing now.

So I wrap a cargo net around the pumpkin, that's to secure it to a log Well, we successfully launched and paddled 26.2 miles.

- [Dave] Two o'clock in the morning almost.

Got our boat, pumpkin staged.

We're good to go for tomorrow.

Take a nap, hit it hard.

- [Dave] Yep.

- [Dave] Oh, woo.

It's cold and I'm tired.

But at least I don't have to paddle a pumpkin.

- [Gary] It's 6:18 in the morning.

We got a few hours of sleep last night.

I'd say at least two, maybe three for me.

And it'll be interesting to see how much distance we make it today.

'Cause that will tell if we actually can make it Astoria.

- When he puts his mind to something, it's gonna happen.

There's just, it's not a question of if, it's when.

Good to have people like that in your life.

Keeps you humble.

(engine rumbling) - [Gary] So where that boat is going right there is where last year we ended our world record.

So now everything from now on on this trip is going to be world record territory.

So, let's see where the world record lands.

(laughs) (playful music) - [Boat Driver] Thought you were in a damn kayak.

- [Boat Driver] Is that plastic or a real pumpkin?

- It's a real pumpkin.

- No (censor beeps).

- You get a lot of funny reactions in regard to, is it real or how did you grow that thing?

Or why are you doing this?

You guys know where I can get a pumpkin spice latte in May?

(Dave laughs) People aren't used to seeing pumpkins in May.

They're used to seeing pumpkins in October.

- [Boater] Can I take pictures?

Do you mind?

- [Gary] Oh, absolutely.

- [Boater] I just, oh, stay away from him.

Stay away from him.

Oh, I just think this is so cool.

I know, right?

- You are amazing.

We've brought our friends.

Sorry.

- [Boater 2] Oh my god!

- That's a pumpkin.

- [Gary] I can show you top speed if you want.

(water sloshing) Okay.

I think we're topped out now.

(boaters laughing) - [Boaters] Well have fun.

- [Gary] Yeah.

Good to see ya.

- See you guys.

- See ya.

Turns people into little kids.

Yeah.

(playful music continues) I kinda felt like I hit a wall.

We just relaxed and floated for a little bit.

After paddling for so long and being crammed inside this pumpkin, I'm just desperate to stand up and stretch out.

It is such a relief.

(laughs) - Oh, do I have to sit back down?

I think I get some sleep tonight.

I'll have a productive day of paddling tomorrow, but I don't know if we're on pace to make it to Astoria.

Oh my god.

I've been going hard for like an hour and a half now.

- [Dave] I know.

I don't know how you're doing it.

- At this point it's gotten windy, it's a headwind.

I'm down close to the water and these waves look huge coming at me and I'm just paddling as hard as I can trying to keep moving.

'Cause I'm told that the spot we're gonna stop is just ahead.

And I keep looking over at the shore next to me and it does not look like we're moving, even though I'm paddling as hard as I possibly can.

And if I let up and paddle a little bit less, I'm going backwards.

You know, I gotta keep paddling.

I need to get to the shore and I'm tired.

- [Dave] So, it's just that marina to the left there.

Oh, he's going on like 14 hours of paddling solid now.

- [Gary] This is gonna kill me.

(cheering in the distance) Luckily a couple of my friends showed up and are cheering me on.

And that gave me the needed shot of energy to keep going.

And I keep paddling as hard as I can and get to the dock.

Is is there possibly a way we can moor?

In the planning for this trip, I had planned for ways to tie off the pumpkin to a beach.

I did not think we were gonna be trying to tie a pumpkin to a dock.

There's nowhere that I can see that's safe to put a pumpkin.

Yeah?

- [Friends] We're all proud of you.

We're all rooting for you, man.

- Oh yeah.

- [Onlooker] That's a real pumpkin?

- [Dave] Real pumpkin he grew it himself.

- [Onlooker] That is awesome.

- [Dave] We gotta figure out where to put the pumpkin.

- [Gary] We're gonna try to loop a net around it.

My brain is spent, I can't think straight.

I just want to get out of the pumpkin and go take a break.

I am kind of leaning towards deep sixing this thing and going to dinner.

- [Friends] We're just astounded that he was in there since 5:00 this morning.

- Oh my word.

- He was having some leg cramps.

- You think?

(laughs) - My goodness.

- [Gary] What about those little stakes?

The only tool I've got is these spikes I had brought along for carving into a beach and I dug them into the side of the pumpkin thinking they would just cut a little hole, but they cut a gash.

Watch us destroy this.

- Oh no.

That's what I'm afraid of.

- I'm feeling a little bit disappointed that I've possibly structurally damaged the pumpkin and that it might not be safe to continue on.

My goal is to get to Astoria, but we did break the world record.

I guess this is an end of the journey and I think we're just gonna leave the pumpkin here at the dock and go get some sleep.

Got some rest, slept in my own bed and we need to do something with the pumpkin.

(playful music) - We're gonna paddle the pumpkin out and we're gonna deep six this thing, carve it into pieces while standing in it in the river and let it go down.

It went from just being a flower to a pumpkin and I'm tending to it every day and hoping that this pumpkin will live and survive.

And it did.

It was actually a pretty darn good boat.

And cutting it up at the end is a little bit bittersweet.

It's been a good boat.

Yeah.

And hard to do because I wanted to keep going and I think the pumpkin wanted to keep going too.

If the pumpkin could talk, it would say, "You need to keep going.

We're not done."

(laughs) - [Dave] There she goes.

- [Gary and Onlookers Whoop] (no audio) (no audio)