I always thought they must use some kind of special sand or put some kind of additive in the sand/water mix. Not the case.....they use the beach sand, water, their hand tools (trowels, straws, buckets, knives, forms, etc.) and that's about it. The sand is all natural beach sand but a couple of the displays did use other items from the beach such as sea weed, shells, etc.
We arrived mid morning, set up our beach sun shade behind some of the areas that had already been staked out for the competition and walked each of them shortly after they'd begun and before the big crowds got there. This is a timed event and at 2:00 p.m. everybody has to put down their tools of the craft.
Some early on photos....just to show some of the progression. It was certainly interesting to watch these progress....especially those that were teams working on the same piece. Working on different sides of the same piece and come together at some point and all are on the same scale was very interesting.
It was also very interesting to see how some of the teams were only a two man team (or in the case of The Sand Castle Man....one man show) and show as much or more detail than the large teams, in the same amount of time.
an early shot of what will become the Eiffel Tower....
Some of the displays were based on recent movies. This one is the begining of Ratatolle...
and of course.....Transformer
And further down the beach, closer to the water, there was a beach goer trying to dig his way to China....
a couple of the teams used forms until the sand dried........
and, being a military town, the Marines were present. They were actually doing manuvers in several locations just off shore
The Sandcastle Championships have been absent the past two years. They just got to big for the city and law enforcement to be able to manage and control. But now they're back and this team's theme is "Back On Track". They were the largest team in number of people as well as the largest display. And even though a couple of the smaller displays had much more detail, this display took 1st place in the competition.
The drawing that they were working from:
the Imperial Beach Pier
Up on the pier, it's obvious that the beach is starting to get just a bit crowded......