2,346-pound gourd from Santa Rosa wins World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KGO) -- The annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay brought together gourd growers from across the country to see who managed to grow the heaviest pumpkin.

Brandon Dawson, a grower from Santa Rosa who was runner-up last year, has won it this year with a pumpkin weighing 2,346 pounds.

Dawson was 2024's second place winner with his 2,465-pound pumpkin losing by six pounds to Travis Gienger's 2,471-pound pumpkin.

The pumpkin Gienger was working on split earlier in the season, so this year he came from Minesota just to support his friends. Still, he said he remembers well just how anxious growers can feel in the seconds leading to the moment of truth at the scale.

"It's a 180-day commitment," Gienger said. "You start your seeds around April 10, you pick them around October 10, and rally out here. It's a lot."

For his victory this year, Dawson won $21,114, which is $9 per pound of his pumpkin. If he had broken the world record, he would have also gotten a $30,000 bonus.

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Officials were weighing pumpkins from small to massive all morning and the excitement was only growing, with each pumpkin grower hoping that there's was the winner.

"It is a fun guessing game, Ken Newton said. "It doesn't matter...it can be a smaller pumpkin, can be weighing more than the other pumpkin."

This all leads up to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Saturday and Sunday.