A member of the Hard Sand Cafe team has big clumps of wet sand tossed to him atop what would be the creation, "Will Snidely Prevail?" which played off a Bullwinkle theme.<BR><I>Photo by Damian Mulinix</I>

LONG BEACH – The remains from the giant bonfire lit the night before was still smoldering as contestants in the 20th annual SandSations sand sculpture contests arrived and began digging Saturday morning.

“It went awesome. I can’t believe how wonderful it went,” said Cindy Friend, one of the event organizers.

SandSations saw one of its biggest turnouts Saturday, in both participation and spectators. The contest drew a wide variety of entrants, 47 in all, some from as close as the Peninsula, others from as far away as Utah and Idaho. Friend noted one little boy competing in the children’s division who was here all the way from Lafayette, La.

The competitors were broken up by experience, with pro teams, families and youngsters as well as people who just showed up and wanted to build, working side by side.

The Masters Class – made up of teams that regularly compete in contests – was won for the second year in a row by the Orbital Sanders of Seattle with their sculpture, “Shark Bait.” The members of the team wore foam shark head hats as they built. A nice touch, but not quite as compelling as the Hard Sand Cafe team, which had one of its team members standing atop its highest point and had others throw him large clumps of sand and buckets of water.

Results of the

20th annual SandSations sand sculpture contestMasters Class

1- Orbital Sanders, “Shark Bait,” Seattle

2- Hard Sand Cafe, “Will Snidely Prevail?” Federal Way

3- Sandango, “Iron Chef,” Portland

Judge’s Choice

Team Donna, “Grandma’s Beachin,'” Las Vegas

Intermediate Class

1- The Dodson’s, “Sand Castle,” Post Falls, Idaho

2- The Group, “Fish & Chip Ca-Sea-No,” Bothell

3- Beach Nuts, “Watering Hole,” Kelso

Mayor’s Choice

Ken and Kylie, “Bumper Cars,” Vancouver and Long Beach

Novice Class

1- Green Team, “Scorch,” Seattle

2- Adventurous Adventurers, “American Pride,” Sumner

3- Randy’s Rangers, “Dolphins,” Lake Oswego, Ore.

Family Class

1- Caribbean Crew, “Caribbean Treasure,” Stansbury Park, Utah

2- The Pod, “Whale Watching,” Silverdale

3- Believe, “The Passion,” Seattle

Children’s Treasure Chest

Nick Carter and Collin Ray, “The Lost City,” Puyallup and Bonney Lake

Despite a westerly wind blowing off the ocean, it was a warm day and drew quite a crowd to the beach, many playing in the sand or little tidal pools. The crowd was easily bigger than last year according to coordinator Roberta Marsh, many of whom came from out of town for the event. Christopher and Dorothy Woolford were in town from Salem to visit their grandmother Diane Curry of Ocean Park, who thought it would be some fun for the kids.

“I’ve never done this and I’ve been back living here for two years and the grandkids were going to be here, and I thought this would be great.”

Curry and the Woolfords titled their creation “The Hazards of Underwater Racing,” complete with a race track dug in the sand with various “hazards along the way, including a toy of Aragon, the giant spider from the Harry Potter series. Little Dorothy pointed out her contribution – a small sand mound adorned with tiny figurines from the Sponge Bob Squarepants show.

“If I can keep Dorothy from stomping on it, we’ll be fine,” said Curry.

On Friday night, people had the chance to come down to the beach and take a lesson on how to build sand castles. Jim and Kate Bannister of Long Beach, along with relatives David and Mary Bannister of Arizona, attended in hopes of culling the necessary knowledge that might get them something more than just a bucket of wet sand turned over to make a tower and whatnot.

They titled their creation simply “Fish.” Kate agreed with some certainty that it had come out the way the family had hoped.

“It is. It is. We just, yeah, it is,” she said laughing.

The family decided the night before what the theme would be after one of the children suggested the very open theme.

“We came to the lessons last night, so we kind of got an idea after watching that, what we were going to do.”

They ended up making a fishing boat from sand with poles out the back, their lines hooked to fish made of sand – nearly as large as the boat.

It was their first time too, “Can you tell?” asked Kate.

The “Sand Flea Pet Parade” was held in the afternoon, with Sparky walking away on all four legs with the top prize of “Beachiest Pet.” In an honor that only a true dog-lover could appreciate, Jeanie Farley of Seattle and her Pugs Sumo and Saki won the owner-pet look-a-like prize.

In the end, after the awards were all given away and all the shovels and spray bottles had all been put away, many stuck around to watch as the tides come up and quickly destroyed the hours of hard work and artistry. But all things are not meant to last, just as Jimi Hendrix once sang, “And so castles made of sand, melt into the sea, eventually.”