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Beachgoers may run into some interesting things in the sand at the north end of the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk next weekend.
Characters like dragons, jungle animals and monsters, as well as city skylines and medieval castles will be popping up out of the sand at the 32nd Annual Sandcastle Contest, which will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m., closing at 3 p.m. and results at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, at Fisherman’s Beach in front of the Henlopen Hotel.
The event, presented by the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, expects to draw more than 100 teams and approximately 800 total participants.
Awards are presented to the top-10 winners as voted by judges in both the adult ages 15 and older, and child ages 7 to 14 categories, with prizes being made up of items from local businesses, like restaurant gift certificates and beach trinkets from shops around town.
Every participant in the Smiley’s Choice division will receive a beach ball and coupon for a free ice cream cone on the boardwalk.
If you feel like heading south this weekend and playing in the sand a bit, professional artist Darrell O’Connor, who will give three lessons following the close of the contest but prior to results being announced, has some tips that could help you come away with one of the prizes on the day.
1. Come prepared
Before you can even start on your sandcastle, O’Connor said, you would need to have the proper equipment. Based on the scale of what you’re working on, that equipment could be anything from a beach bucket and shovel, to what he carries, which is a few drywall buckets, a regular shovel, cement trowels and a palette knife. It all depends on what you want to accomplish, O’Connor said.
2. Pick a spot
There’s nothing worse, O’Connor said, than building a sandcastle, coming to a near end of construction and then watching the tide rise and demolish the work you’ve done. Therefore, when picking a spot, go down close to the water, find the tide line in the sand, and back up a few feet beyond that line to ensure the ocean, barring some natural disaster, won’t kill your castle. This isn’t a necessity, O’Connor added. If you’re only planning on spending an hour or so on your castle, much like children do, setting up close to the ocean isn’t a big deal. And if you’re wondering if the tide is going out or coming in, the lifeguards always know, so just ask.
Beachgoers may run into some interesting things in the sand at the north end of the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk next weekend.
Characters like dragons, jungle animals and monsters, as well as city skylines and medieval castles will be popping up out of the sand at the 32nd Annual Sandcastle Contest, which will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m., closing at 3 p.m. and results at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7, at Fisherman’s Beach in front of the Henlopen Hotel.
The event, presented by the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, expects to draw more than 100 teams and approximately 800 total participants.
Awards are presented to the top-10 winners as voted by judges in both the adult ages 15 and older, and child ages 7 to 14 categories, with prizes being made up of items from local businesses, like restaurant gift certificates and beach trinkets from shops around town.
Every participant in the Smiley’s Choice division will receive a beach ball and coupon for a free ice cream cone on the boardwalk.
If you feel like heading south this weekend and playing in the sand a bit, professional artist Darrell O’Connor, who will give three lessons following the close of the contest but prior to results being announced, has some tips that could help you come away with one of the prizes on the day.
1. Come prepared
Before you can even start on your sandcastle, O’Connor said, you would need to have the proper equipment. Based on the scale of what you’re working on, that equipment could be anything from a beach bucket and shovel, to what he carries, which is a few drywall buckets, a regular shovel, cement trowels and a palette knife. It all depends on what you want to accomplish, O’Connor said.
2. Pick a spot
There’s nothing worse, O’Connor said, than building a sandcastle, coming to a near end of construction and then watching the tide rise and demolish the work you’ve done. Therefore, when picking a spot, go down close to the water, find the tide line in the sand, and back up a few feet beyond that line to ensure the ocean, barring some natural disaster, won’t kill your castle. This isn’t a necessity, O’Connor added. If you’re only planning on spending an hour or so on your castle, much like children do, setting up close to the ocean isn’t a big deal. And if you’re wondering if the tide is going out or coming in, the lifeguards always know, so just ask.
3. Build your pile
This might seem obvious, but guess what else you need to make a sandcastle? You guessed it — a pile of sand. Again, the size of the pile depends on the scale of what you would want to build, O’Connor said, so stack your sand as short or high as you want. Dampen the sand with some ocean water then and pack it down tight to make it easier to sculpt. Just dampen the sand, don’t soak it. To pack the sand down, you can bring some sort of tool, but your hands or flip flops work just as well.
4. Start your sculpting
For a standard castle, the easiest way to start is by building two towers using buckets, O’Connor said. Sculpt your towers, and then start to connect them with a building between the two to round out the castle. From there, you can add some character with a castle wall, staircase up a tower or a moat with an open drawbridge, O’Connor said.
5. Use your imagination
While some castle builders prefer to map out what they’re doing ahead of time, O’Connor said he thinks an imaginative approach is the way to go. He urged to never think more than two steps ahead in the process, because a structure could always partially collapse and mar plans. So O’Connor said it is better to approach a castle like an artist instead of an engineer.
Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com
