Castles and kingdoms

Alex Coolman

CORONA DEL MAR -- There was a crisis in the castle.

Chris Crosson, the leader of the castle design team from the Doggie

Walk Bag company, was walking around Corona del Mar State Beach looking

harried Sunday as his staff of underlings attempted to deal with the

situation. The castle, which was made out of sand and came up about

chest-high on Crosson, was listing in its foundation.

“Can you hand me a C-clamp? Just for a second?”

He reached out for the assistance of “queen shoveler” Lisa Reedy, who

handed him the clamp. Crosson dashed over to the castle, screwed the

clamp on the tar-paper wall that was reinforcing the structure and stared

anxiously at his repair job.

Would it hold? It would have to hold. This was serious business.

The reason for so much drama was the 39th annual sand castle contest,

an event put on by the Commodores Club of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber

of Commerce.

This year’s event drew 44 teams, comprising more than 450

castle-makers, said Dan Hamilton, event chair. And though the morning

started off a little overcast, the sun came out by the afternoon to shine

on the competitors’ sandy creations.

For the people working on the castles -- or in some cases sculptures

-- the contest’s tight deadline meant Sunday was anything but a leisurely

day at the beach.

In the Masters Division, Hamilton said, teams were given three hours

to complete their structures. Everybody else had to make due with two

hours.

That might seem like plenty of time, but competitors said it’s no

simple matter to make sand stay in place.

Enrique Ceniceros, an employee of the Irvine architecture firm GKK,

watched as his staff worked on a creature that looked like an immense,

snoozing lizard.

“It’s a matter of experience, and it’s also just about luck,” he said.

GKK’s project, for example, started off as something like a dragon,

but they began to think of it as a dinosaur as the sand was put into

place.

“We are calling it a dragonosaurus,” explained Jeet Singhal, who was

helping on the project.

Hamilton said the chamber was planning to distribute a number of

awards to participants -- from straightforward prizes such as “best

castle” to categories such as “most unique” that recognized the oddball

spirit of the competition.

“Most people will at least get recognized for participating,” he said.