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Fla. contest is awash with pumpkins       Send a link to a friend

[October 22, 2007]  KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) --  Not content to carve their pumpkins in the traditional way, several divers carved jack-o'-lanterns more than 30 feet below the ocean's surface.

Ken and Linda Smith of Sebring, Fla., took top honors Saturday for their "scary pumpkin" at the 10th annual Amoray Dive Resort Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Their prize was a free dive trip.

Carving underwater wasn't easy, Ken Smith said.

"The pumpkins want to float, so that makes it difficult," he said. "So you're working against your own buoyancy and the pumpkin's."

Some contestants dropped a weight inside their pumpkins to keep them on the bottom. Then they sliced and pared to create their entries alongside yellowtail snapper and other fish.

The contest was staged about five miles off Key Largo.

[Associated Press]

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