Step aside, ultramarathoners: The US has a new endurance athlete, and he is as gourd as it gets.
A Nebraska man has set a new world record after he paddled 38 miles (61.155km) down a river in a huge, hollowed-out pumpkin he grew himself.
Duane Hansen of Syracuse, Nebraska, completed his journey last week, a Facebook post from the city of Bellevue on Saturday showed.
Photo: Reuters
Photographs on social media show Hansen crouched inside the giant squash, which weighed in at 384kg, the Facebook post said.
Officials said Hansen set off down the Missouri River at about 7:30am and completed his journey just after 6:30pm.
It might look like fun — but you had butternut try this at home. The 11-hour voyage appeared to take a physical toll on Hansen, who named the orange vessel Berta.
“I went 38 miles down the river without standing up in that pumpkin and my knees still hurt,” Hansen said in a video posted by Reuters.
“I probably won’t try this again,” he added with a smile. “If somebody breaks this record, I will bow down to them because they are tough.”
He told the Omaha World-Herald he had endured collisions with a sandbar and a rock, as well as heavy rain and cold.
“I thought: ‘I’ll just paddle harder and warm up.’ I wasn’t thinking about quitting,” he said. “I went another 4 to 5 miles [6.4km to 8km] and it rained again. Berta is only about 8 inches [20cm] above the water line. I’ve never paid so much attention for so long in my entire life. It was tough.”
Hansen is described in the Facebook post as a “longtime Nebraska resident who enjoys growing large pumpkins, gourds and other vegetables as a hobby,” and was inspired to vanquish the previous record after seeing another paddler attempt it.
“Seems like a unique if not slightly crazy way to celebrate his 60th birthday, which was yesterday,” the post read.
Hansen asked city officials to bear witness to the feat so that it would be recognized by Guinness World Records.
The organization has not yet validated the results, the Washington Post said, but it confirmed it would beat the current record for “longest journey by pumpkin boat” held by Rick Swenson, who traveled 41.038km in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 2016.
Pumpkins are famed for their ability to reach extraordinary sizes, with some varieties weighing more than 900kg.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered