At least 30 giant-pumpkin growers have signed up to haul their multi-ton gourds to the Northern California coast this Monday, each hoping to walk away with the top prize at the 53rd World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay — and maybe a shot at rewriting the record books. Minnesota horticulture teacher and four-time champion Travis Gienger is among them, arriving with a pumpkin whose circumference alone has organizers buzzing about a possible world record.
According to the Associated Press, event spokesman Ronan Fowler said Gienger grew a pumpkin with a circumference that could contend for a world record this year, even though the grower had to manage temperatures below freezing back home in Anoka, north of Minneapolis, where he tends his gourds in his backyard pumpkin patch. Fowler added that Gienger could grow a massive pumpkin despite the harsh 30-degree weather. Gienger and his father reportedly planned a 30-hour drive over the weekend to get the pumpkin safely to California in time for the contest.
Gienger sat out last year's competition entirely after his pumpkin broke while it was growing, a frustrating setback for a grower who has dominated the event in recent years. He won the 2022 Half Moon Bay weigh-off with a 2,560-pound pumpkin named Maverick, which later became the world's largest jack-o'-lantern in Anoka, according to FOX 9. The following year he topped that with a 2,749-pound pumpkin called Michael Jordan, winning the 50th Half Moon Bay weigh-off and receiving a $30,000 total prize that included the $9-per-pound award.
A Defending Champion With An Engineer's Approach
Standing in Gienger's way is Brandon Dawson of Santa Rosa, who will compete again this year after winning the previous Half Moon Bay weigh-off with a 2,346-pound pumpkin. Dawson works as a manufacturing engineer at Rivian Automotive in Sonoma County, and he has applied that technical mindset to his growing operation, taking a technical approach to watering and fertilizing his pumpkins, according to Popular Science. Dawson's win last year came at the Safeway 52nd Annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay on October 13, 2025.
Whoever takes this year's title will collect $9 per pound of their winning pumpkin. A world-record pumpkin qualifies for a $30,000 total prize, including the $9-per-pound award, per the event's rules. The champion's pumpkin will also be showcased in a parade through Half Moon Bay, and Monday's festivities kick off the city's broader fall celebration, with pumpkin carver Mike Valladao making a special appearance.
An International Benchmark Looms From England
An International Benchmark Looms From England Any grower hoping to set a new world record this year has a steep new target: Ian Paton of Lymington, on England's south coast, grew a 2,857-pound giant squash named Bagheera in a greenhouse earlier this October, and Guinness confirmed it as a record.
Giant pumpkins and squash are grown for size rather than flavor, and Bagheera's heft now sets the bar that Half Moon Bay's entrants will chase.
The Half Moon Bay weigh-off is officially sanctioned by the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth and officiated alongside the San Mateo County Department of Agriculture Office of Weights and Measures, which certifies winning weights on a 5-ton capacity digital industrial scale, according to the event's own quick facts page. That regulatory backbone is what allows a Half Moon Bay win to double as a world-record attempt in the first place.
Five Decades Of Friendly Rivalry
The competition traces back to 1974, when it began as a friendly challenge between Half Moon Bay and Circleville, Ohio, over pumpkin-capital bragging rights — a contest that started with a winning entry of just 132 pounds, as detailed by AgroLatam. Fifty-two years later, the 2025 winning entry weighed 2,346 pounds, and the event has grown physical roots in town: a Weigh-Off Wall of Fame was unveiled on Cunha Market in downtown Half Moon Bay in 2024, commemorating champions. The first-place grower also receives a custom Pumpkin King Champion Ring and a two-night coastal stay, per the same quick facts page. The city also features a pumpkin sculpture.
Half Moon Bay isn't the only Northern California stop chasing giant gourds and big paydays this fall. The National Pumpkin Weigh Off at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland offered more than $100,000 in total prizes this year, including a $75,000 bounty for the first grower to bring in a 3,000-pound pumpkin, as Hoodline previously reported. With growers weighing where to haul their fragile, multi-ton crops, the contrast between Half Moon Bay's $9-per-pound rate with a world-record kicker and Wheatland's flat jackpot gives top competitors real choices about where their gourds go.
The Art & Pumpkin Festival that follows the weigh-off draws tens of thousands of visitors to Half Moon Bay every October, while food sales support community groups. For growers like Gienger, who planned a 30-hour drive to bring his pumpkin to the contest, Monday's results will determine whether this year's circumference-busting gourd translates into another record-breaking payday.
