Building their dream castles of sand

Christine Carrillo

Jennifer Burns found herself crawling around with her family in a

sand plot at the Corona del Mar State Beach on Sunday attempting to

sculpt a fire-breathing dragon out of sand and hoping to receive more

than an honorable mention for their efforts.

Burns’ team, along with 49 others, packed the beaches Sunday

afternoon as they competed in the 41st annual Newport Beach Chamber

of Commerce Sandcastle Contest presented by the Commodores Club.

For Burns, this marked the sixth year she traveled from Arizona

just to compete in the contest that has become a kind of time-honored

tradition for her family, most of whom live in Newport Beach. But

this year proved to be worth the trip. Her team won first place for

most unique sand sculpture. The two other major winners were the

Parks Family, who won first place in the Master’s sandcastle

category, and Lila Fulton and Jeff Sherman for overall best creation.

Starting off with a flat plot of sand as their canvass, the

amateur and professional teams -- professional architects and

builders that is -- rushed to complete a variety of sand sculptures,

allowed to have no more than eight members in the plot at a time,

before the judging would begin. They entertained beach-goers in the

process.

“I have no creative ability at all,” said Stan Boulder, a Newport

Beach resident who has enjoyed watching the contest for the last 12

years. “I love to come here with my grandkids and try to figure out

what they’re building ... sometimes it’s easy but sometimes you just

don’t know.”

Although many of the onlookers may not see the participants’

visions come alive right away, just being a part of the process is

half the fun.

“We try to keep it fun,” said Dan Hamilton, the chamber commodore

and chairman of the contest. “It’s definitely a tough thing to build

sandcastles ... it’s a race against the time.”

And Burns admits that the three-hour time frame never seems to be

enough.

Another major challenge many people face is trying to build a

strong and secure structure.

With the use of ladders, tar paper, tools and buckets of water,

Chris Crosson and his 30-person team from Doggie Walk Bags in Newport

Beach and Balboa, tried everything they could think of to keep from

losing their 9-foot tall sandcastle, but it just wasn’t enough. A

portion of it fell and they were forced to regroup and try again.

“It’s a good venue to be with people and work together,” Crosson

said. “It helps you organize with teamwork.”

And while the contest enables families and businesses an

opportunity to work together it also give the community a chance to

get together for a day of fun, Hamilton said.