In Tualatin, the Pumpkins Get Weighed on Saturday and Paddled on Sunday

"Giant pumpkins are agricultural products and the number of usable pumpkins isn't known until race morning." The organizers of the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta put that warning on the regatta's website. It means that this year's selected paddlers won't know for sure that they're racing until Sunday, October 18, when the pumpkins are already at the lake.

The festival at Lake of the Commons runs on a supply chain that starts months earlier in growers' backyard patches. That chain reaches Tualatin one day before the races, at a scale in a brewery on SW 118th Avenue. The Saturday weigh-off is when the fleet first shows up in town.

Saturday Is When the Fleet Arrives

Pumpkins and Pints runs Saturday, October 17, from noon to 5 p.m. at Stickmen Brewing Company, 19475 SW 118th Ave. Admission is free. The main event is the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers' Terminator Weigh-Off, where giant pumpkins, giant tomatoes and other oversized produce compete for cash prizes. Stickmen serves wood-fired pizza and its own beer.

The city spells out how the two days connect. Growers from around the Pacific Northwest weigh their pumpkins at the Terminator, and then "many of those same pumpkins make their way to the Lake of the Commons to become pumpkin boats for the Regatta." The Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers supply every pumpkin the regatta uses. The whole event started with them in 2004, when the club was looking for a place to hold an end-of-season paddle with a handful of giant pumpkins.

Last year's results show the kind of fruit that goes on the scale. These are the top 2025 Terminator finishers, from the published weigh-off ledger:

Compare those to the pumpkin that won on the water. Gary Kristensen won the first 2025 race in a 936-pound pumpkin, according to AP coverage carried by KATU. That's nearly 700 pounds lighter than Sherwood's winning entry. The scale and the lake reward different things. The Terminator ranks raw weight, while a winning boat only has to carry its paddler across the lake faster than the rest.

What Happens Between the Scale and the Waterline

Racing pumpkins aren't one-off oddities. Growers breed for them. Portland Monthly's 2024 grower interview names the cultivar as Dill's Atlantic Giant. It also describes growers choosing seed lines for oblong shapes, smooth skin and flat bottoms, which sound a lot like the specs for a hull.

On race morning the pumpkins get turned into boats in public. At the 2025 regatta, forklifts and other heavy equipment moved them to the water. Growers then cut openings and scooped out the pulp with spoons, scrapers and their hands. OregonLive's account of that day says that removing more pulp makes a pumpkin lighter and faster, and that the carving filled a dumpster with seeds and pulp.

That's the step behind the organizers' warning. A pumpkin that looks fine on Saturday still has to survive the forklift, the cutting and the water on Sunday. The club grows the fruit for a weigh-off, and only part of the harvest ends up as a boat. The city expects organizers to "make every effort to accommodate those selected," while noting that availability "isn't confirmed until the regatta day."

Who Gets a Pumpkin, and When

Since the pumpkins come from the growers, the race order starts with the growers. The city's festival schedule runs the races in two blocks:

• Noon, Heat One: Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers members, who paddle their own pumpkins or hand them off to a friend.
• Noon, Heat Two: Sasquash Sponsors and invited special guests.
• 2 p.m., Heat Three: Tualatin Police, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, and paddlers from the online Pumpkin Paddling Quest.
• 2 p.m., Heats Four and Five: the rest of the Paddling Quest winners.

Three names from the 2025 Terminator ledger are on this year's grower paddler list: Ron Barker, Annie Sestak and Brad Bahns. Gary Kristensen, last year's first-race winner, is on the list too, along with Tom Haley, Becca Miller, Jon Voeller, Benjamin Wong and Jim Paino. When Heat One leaves the dock, a lot of the paddlers are steering fruit they grew themselves.

The public heats come last. Entries closed August 28, and organizers expected to pick about 20 paddlers from the online forms. The city's posted list names 16 Quest winners, including Michael Bui, Jillian Daly, Miki Fujikawa, Marinos Kalafatis, Jim Kessinger, Bianca Saleebyan and Charles Wolfe. The sponsor heat includes Toyota, New Seasons Market, OnPoint Community Credit Union, Portland and Western Railroad, and the Emergency Veterinary Clinic of Tualatin. The city provides the pumpkin, paddle and life jacket. Costumes are required, and every paddler has to be able to swim because pumpkins can capsize.

The Weekend in Order

The weekend is easier to plan if you follow the pumpkins:

1. Now through October 15. The city's bronze medallion hunt releases clues on October 1, 8 and 15. If nobody has found the medallion by midnight on October 18, the contest ends.
2. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. The Terminator Weigh-Off at Stickmen Brewing, where you can see the pumpkins before anyone cuts into them.
3. Sunday, 9 a.m. The Tualatin Rotary Club's 5K Regatta Run/Walk starts at Tualatin Community Park, 8513 SW Tualatin Rd. Registration is at regattarun.com.
4. Sunday, 10 a.m. The festival opens at Lake of the Commons, 8325 SW Nyberg St., with a welcome from Mayor Bubenik. The Tualatin High School Marching Band holds a pep rally at 10:15, and Rhys Thomas performs his Jugglemania show at 11.
5. Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the east side. On Nyberg Street, the Pillage People a cappella pirates and the Rose City Dancing Witches trade off sets around the races.
6. Sunday, noon and 2 p.m. The races, with both blocks visible from either side of the lake.
7. Sunday, 3 p.m. The kids' costume contest. Sign-up starts at 10 a.m. at the Information Tent at the end of SW Nyberg Street. Each age group is capped at 25 kids.

Saturday's results show up again on Sunday. The festival's Giant Pumpkin Selfie Station features the top three pumpkins from the Terminator, so the heaviest fruit of the weekend ends up on the plaza instead of in the water. The Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers booth sells giant pumpkin seeds, and the growers there talk about how they get pumpkins past 1,000 pounds. Professional carvers Tom Lindskog and Tim Pate work on the plaza through the day.

Getting to the Lake

The crowd is big for a lake this size. Heidi Marx, event coordinator for Tualatin Parks and Recreation, told Valley Times that attendance hit 21,500 in 2024. The city's Pumpkin Shuttle runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., with stops at Kaiser Permanente, Bellagio's Pizza, The Oregon Clinic and Hedges Green. It drops riders near Floor & Decor, two blocks from the lake. A free bike valet runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Nyberg Street and 84th Avenue, across from the food court. ADA parking is at the Green Lot, 18715 SW Boones Ferry Rd.

Only service animals are allowed, so leave the dog at home. Entry and all activities are free, and food and merchandise are for sale. There are food courts on both sides of the lake. Vendors include Lee Farms with donuts and caramel apples, Cousins Maine Lobster, Asona Cuisine with West African rice bowls, Crust and Corner Pizzeria with Detroit-style pizza, and Rosa's Churros. This year's poster theme is "Tattoo Couture – Fortune Favors the Brave!" The poster brings back the jester alongside ravens, serpents and black cats. Regatta artist Brenna White will be on the main plaza with prints and cards.

The city also asks visitors to come ready for any kind of weather. The schedule depends on pumpkins grown outdoors since spring, and the fleet isn't final until Sunday morning, so the weather on race day is part of the event too.

At Matt Booth Winback, we follow the Tualatin calendar because it says a lot about how the town works. If you're thinking about what a home near Lake of the Commons, or anywhere else in Tualatin, would mean for your next move, let's connect. We're happy to walk you through it calmly and carefully, with no pressure.