iT’s
SANd-
SATIONAL!
FAMILY FUN IS A SHORE THING WHEN ScULPTORS OF ALL AGES
TRANSFORM SAND AND SEA WATER INTO AMAzING cREATURES,
cHARAcTERS AND cAMELOTS. By sanDra shraDEr
as the weight of the world got you down these days?
h
Well, don’t just bury your head in the sand! Instead,
grab the kids, head down to the U.S. Open Sandcastle
Competition on July 18-19 and discover what happens
when art and imagination meet wet sand.
The weekend festivities kick off in Imperial Beach on
Saturday at 2 p.m. with a “Kids-n-Kastles” competition for children ages
12 and younger. Artists will be judged in three sand sculpture categories
including “Castles,” “Best Sculpture” and “Creatures of the Sea,” with
raffle prizes and winners announced between 4 and 5 p.m. on the main
stage. (The cost to participate is $10 per five-member team.)
The competition takes a more serious turn on Sunday when the
official U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition takes place from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. on the Main Beach. The 29th annual event will pit teams
of amateur and professional sand carvers against each other as they
shovel and trowel their way for the title of Master’s Champion and
more than $21,000 in cash prizes.
The largest sand carving competition in the country, the USOSC’s
T
ography
weekend-event festivities also include 140 food and arts-and-crafts
ho
p
booths, plus plenty of classic rock, Latin rock and live jazz bands to
an
entertain the anticipated 350,000-people-in-attendance.

aL
ETT
With as many as forty teams expected in Sunday’s competition—
y Br
including two teams that have been rivals in their division for more than
B
T
o twenty years!—festival-goers can expect to see some incredible works of
ho
p
art, enthused Debbie Longley, chairperson of the USOSC Committee.
“Last year, there was a sculpture called “hands free” that featured a
“i am always amazed at
giant octopus behind the wheel of a car while all eight of his tentacles
were ‘occupied’ doing something that wasn’t driving, [depicting a]
what these sand sculptors
holding a cell phone, etc.,” recalled Longley. “And a few years ago, a
do with their creativity.
returning Masters team made a sand sculpture of a ‘poker hand.’ Last
“it’s jaw-dropping!”
year’s top winner was a comic take on surging oil prices...[depicting a]
truck being filled up, a money bag in the back and a gas pump with dollar
signs on it!”
Added Longley, “I am always amazed at what these sand sculptors
do with their creativity. “It’s jaw-dropping!”’
22 june l MYunDERTHESun.COM
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