Carving a pumpkin on dry land is apparently too easy.

So, for the 31st year, Extreme Sports Scuba divers grabbed their pumpkins, carving knives, dive gear and questionable artistic abilities and headed to Beaver Lake for the Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving.

On Sunday, October 4, 15 contestants met at Indian Creek Campground to find out what they could create underwater in 45 minutes—with no patterns, no pre-drawn designs, no props, no electric knives and, according to the official rules, absolutely no stolen pumpkins.

We’ll come back to the rules.

First, we had to get the pumpkins underwater.

A Pretty Perfect October Day at Beaver Lake

October diving at Beaver Lake can be a gamble, especially for those of us who aren’t particularly interested in finding out just how cold we can get before we stop having fun.

This year, though, we couldn’t have asked for much better.

It was sunny and about 85 degrees outside, and the water temperature was still around 80 degrees at 18 feet. For October in the Ozarks, we’ll take it.

The lake itself was a different story.

Beaver Lake is way down right now. The competition allows divers to carve anywhere from 4 to 35 feet, although finding that 35 feet from our shore entry might have been a competition of its own this year.

Visibility near the surface wasn’t doing us any favors, either. Around six feet, it was downright horrible, with plenty of stuff suspended in the water. Getting closer to the 18- to 20-foot range helped considerably, although there was still plenty of extra silt hanging around.

Fortunately, you don’t need great visibility to stare intently at a pumpkin from six inches away.

Step One: Convince a Pumpkin to Sink

There is one fairly obvious problem with underwater pumpkin carving that you may not think about until you try it:

Pumpkins float.

And they can be remarkably determined about it.

Every diver seems to develop a preferred strategy for getting one to the bottom. Some put weights inside their pumpkins. Some use nets. Some add extra weight to themselves. And some employ whatever other pumpkin-buoyancy-management system they’ve devised over the years.

Before entering the water, competitors are required to cut the top off their pumpkin—or at least make a hole large enough to allow air to escape. That’s actually one of the newer rules. Once the pumpkin and diver are completely submerged, the real work can begin.

And we do mean once they’re submerged.

You can vent the pumpkin on shore. You cannot gut it. You cannot start carving. You cannot draw your design ahead of time. You cannot trace a pattern.

Once you’re underwater, you’re on your own.

You Have 45 Minutes. And Yes, We Mean 45 Minutes.

The competition begins at 1 p.m., and everyone gets 45 minutes—or until they reach 500 psi—to finish their pumpkin.

The clock doesn’t care if you’re still standing on shore.

If it takes you five minutes to get yourself, your buddy, your gear, and your stubbornly buoyant pumpkin into the water, congratulations: you now have 40 minutes.

Extreme Sports Scuba may be carving pumpkins underwater, but we are very serious about our pumpkin-carving time limit.

Every diver must be certified, every diver must sign a waiver, and divers stay with their buddies throughout the dive. Divers also need to keep an eye on their computers, their air, and their surroundings while somehow turning an orange vegetable into something recognizable.

When the 45 minutes are up, you’ll hear the duck call.

That’s time.

If you’re still underwater, it’s time to surface. And once your pumpkin breaks the surface, carving is finished. No quick touch-ups. No fixing that one eye. No deciding your jack-o’-lantern desperately needs another tooth.

Knives down. Pumpkin done.

Thirty-One Years of Rules

When you’ve been holding an underwater pumpkin carving competition for 31 years, you learn a few things.

And apparently, you add a few rules.

The official 2026 rules include perfectly sensible requirements about certification, dive buddies, safe diving practices and air pressure.

Then there are some of the others.

No carving sheets.

No tracing.

No marking the pumpkin before the dive.

No props.

No electric knives.

No alcohol.

And, again:

No stolen pumpkins.

We’ll just say that rules have a tendency to get added as situations arise.

Use your imagination.

Fifteen Pumpkins and Some Serious Competition

This year’s competition brought out 15 pumpkin carvers, along with additional divers who joined them in the water. Altogether, there were somewhere around 20 to 25 divers making their way into Beaver Lake from shore.

And this isn’t just an adult competition.

At least four junior divers entered this year. Getting young divers underwater alongside more experienced divers is one of the things that makes events like this so much fun. Everyone is working on the same challenge, and age doesn’t necessarily determine who is going to come back to shore with the better pumpkin.

In fact, Bentley walked away with one of this year’s awards. More on that in a minute.

Then Comes the Judging

Once everyone was back on shore, each pumpkin was assigned a number and lined up for judging.

Only the 15 contestants were allowed to vote, and—because apparently we do have some standards—you couldn’t vote for your own pumpkin.

Each contestant chose their first-, second-, and third-place favorites along with their picks for Ugliest and Best Effort.

Then came the tallying.

Which went perfectly.

Almost.

When the votes were counted, the same pumpkin had managed to win both First Place and Best Effort. Since the rules allow only one prize per person, it was back to the scores to determine the next winner.

Eventually, we had our official results.

2026 Underwater Pumpkin Carving Winners

1st Place: Jeremy

2nd Place: Madison

3rd Place: Lindsey

Best Effort: Nathan

Ugliest: Bentley

First through third place split the contest entry money, while our Best Effort and Ugliest winners took home gift certificates.

That’s an accomplishment.

Dive. Carve. Eat.

Of course, no Extreme Sports Scuba event is really finished just because everyone is out of the water.

After the pumpkins were lined up, votes counted, winners announced, and the required group photos taken, it was time to eat.

This year’s post-dive menu included Frito pie, Street Corn Jalapeño Popper Dip, cookies and chips—which isn’t a bad way to finish an afternoon of hauling pumpkins around Beaver Lake.

And after 31 years, that’s really what the Annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving is about.

Yes, there’s a competition. Yes, there are prizes. And yes, some people are considerably better at carving pumpkins underwater than the rest of us.

But it’s also another excuse to get divers together, get underwater, introduce our junior divers to another part of the dive community, and spend a beautiful October afternoon at the lake.

Some pumpkins come back looking incredible.

Some come back looking…interesting.

Some apparently qualify as both award-worthy and in need of recognition for effort.

But everybody comes back with a story.

And next October, we’ll do it all over again.

Just remember:

Bring your certification card.

Bring your dive buddy.

Bring your carving knife.

And please, for the love of 31 years of Extreme Sports Scuba tradition, do not steal your pumpkin.