{"id":332177,"date":"2020-10-26T06:11:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=332177"},"modified":"2020-10-26T06:11:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T20:11:18","slug":"hartig-wins-underwater-pumpkin-carving-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/hartig-wins-underwater-pumpkin-carving-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Hartig wins underwater pumpkin carving contest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
From left, best costume second place winner Karie Comstock, Green Flash Dive owner Rhea McDoulett, underwater\u00a0carving second place winner Madge Gai, first place winner Conall Hartig, third place winner Jon Ball, Green Flash Dive owner\u00a0Joey McDoulett, and Matt Epstein, first place best Halloween costume (RUSS WILCOX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sixteen-year-old Conall Hartig won first place at the 2nd Annual Green Flash Dive Underwater Pumpkin Carving last Saturday in Lau Lau Bay, besting 14 other entries by carving a pumpkin in a form of a shark, complete with sharp teeth, gills, and fins, which ticked all the judges\u2019 boxes in creativity, visual impact, craftmanship, and abiding with the \u201cunderwater Halloween\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

Second runner-up was Madge Gai with an environmental theme, a turtle trapped in plastic; and third place went to Jon Ball, who carved a shark and CNMI latte stone on his pumpkin.<\/p>\n

As his prize, Hartig took home a Scubapro regulator, Gai won a pair of Scubapro jet fins, and Ball got a pair of Scubapro twin jet fins.<\/p>\n

Green Flash Dive owner and scuba instructor Joey McDoulett said the number of participants this year was up. \u201cWe had 15 divers and entries. Everyone had a good time and many who were helping did it for free and that is always good. We will try to make it bigger and better next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all the entries were fantastically creative. \u2026We feel bad about the loss of tourists and tax dollars but we do enjoy the chance to see and explore our uninhibited dive spots as local divers get first dibs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

First-time participants Dr. Ronald Snyder, headmaster at Saipan International School, and Federal Emergency Management Agency Recovery Office director and dive enthusiast Sheryl Cochran said that they will do it again next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I was away. \u2026I couldn\u2019t participate so I was bummed,\u201d said Snyder, \u201cand so I am happy I could do it this year. It was great and had a lot of learning. \u2026I didn\u2019t realize how much the water would soften the pumpkins so mine experienced quite a good deal of collapse underwater but it was a lot of fun and a blast watching everyone what they can come up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun! It was my first time doing it and I had a good time,\u201d Cochran said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dive couple Mica and Sheryl Cochran work on their respective\u00a0pumpkins at the 2nd Annual Green Flash Dive Underwater Pumpkin Carving held last Saturday at Laulau Bay.\u00a0(RUSS WILCOX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Assistant public defender Karie Comstock, who competed last year and won first place, felt nerves kick in by doing it again. \u201cI competed last year and there was some pressure, but the other thing is, I look back at last year, I didn\u2019t know any single person here and didn\u2019t know how to get out of the dive site. This year, I know everybody, which is a big improvement,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the pandemic this year, our local dive groups really came together with doing a lot more of local diving. I will definitely join again next year,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

For extra challenge, diver participants were also required to wear Halloween costumes. The winners are Matt Epstein as \u201cOl Greg\u201d in first place and Karie Comstock won second place as the \u201cShark.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sixteen-year-old Conall Hartig won first place at the 2nd Annual Green Flash Dive Underwater Pumpkin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":332178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}