Punkin Chunkin 2005, Part 1

The route is clearly marked.

Dawn Thompson performing the Punkin Chunkin Anthem.

A small, apparently not-too-successful, trebuchet.

Inmate grounds crew with air powered cannons and centrifuges in background.

White punkin being chunked from a catapult.

This past weekend was the 20th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin in rural southern Delaware.  With a competitor from England, this year's contest actually was a world championship.  Teams compete in adult and children's divisions with human- or machine-powered chunkin devices like catapults, trebuchets, centrifuges, and compressed air cannons.   The human-powered machines are more interesting because you can see the pumpkins fly. 

The air cannons shoot the 8-10 pound pumpkins, not pumpkins, so fast and so far that you're lucky to see them hit the ground more than half-a-mile away.  Unless, of course, the punkins explode upon leaving the cannons, a condition known as  "punkin pie in the sky", or fly backwards, as they occasionally do with the centrifuges and the less-tested devices.  For safety only the crews are allowed near the machine-powered devices and a raised dump truck is used as a backstop.

Each team gets one chunk per day.  Each machine takes a few minutes to set-up so there is plenty of waiting during the day.  For entertainment there's a midway, bands, and, although alcohol is not sold on the grounds, plenty of drinking starting about nine in the morning.

Comments

[david]

this may be the greatest competitive sport ever devised.

[judy]

I wonder if Bill Littlefield will do a spot on this too.

[tien]

wow. that's freaking awesome.

[Joe]

It's no combine demolition derby but the Punkin Chunkin is a good time.

[Erra]

How did the Brits do?

[joe]

The Brits had a respectable toss. Their presence was a big deal in a small town. The local media couldn't get enough of them. The BBC was filming them too as part of a show called "Scrap Heap Challenge".