Sanding Ovation Sandsculpting Competition was held on Treasure Island Nov 18 - 22, 2009.
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
I don’t know how I missed this one. Busy schedule, I guess. But I walked out onto Treasure Island beach on Tuesday, several days after the competition, and saw all these sand sculptures in the distance in front of the Bilmar Beach Resort. So I took a walk up the beach to have a look. Some nice work was still on display, with only one of the sculptures having experienced a collapse. Here are some photos I took. I’ll start with the second place winner:
Second Place winner was Karen Fralich of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, with her sculpture titled "Time Line." I interviewed Karen on camera back in 2007 at the Fort Myers American Sandsculpting Championship Festival.
Third Place winner was Carl Jara from Cleveland, Ohio with a sculpture titled "Haunted."
Brad Goll of Austin, Texas took "People's Choice" award with "Gollrilla."
Finally I present the first place winner, by Dan Doubleday of Treasure Island, Florida. As you can see, his sand sculpture collapsed at some point after winning. Several years ago I interviewed a number of professional sand sculptors and they told me this happens to everyone. Even the best. Here's proof.
A beach scene at the Sanding Ovation competition, looking toward the Gulf of Mexico. Note how incredibly wide the beach is on Treasure Island.
Learn more about the sand sculpting artists and see a photo of the first place winner’s sculpture at the City of Treasure Island web site.
If you watch the short video I produced with the VISITFLORIDA video crew at the Fort Myers Beach American Sandsculpting Championship Festival, you’ll learn some secrets of sandsculpting from the pro’s:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Dave, thanks for posting these pics. We were all set to go on Sunday for the closing festivities when the wind kicked up and the rain started. Since we were going by trolley my friend backed out I missed this event. Yours are the best pics I’ve seen by far!
Going to the boat parade in Tampa next Friday though.
Happy holidays!
The sculptures are just amazing! And a testament of impermanence too.
Hi Dave
I missed this event again!
Your photos are wonderful…even if the sculptures are a little windblown. It must have been an incredible sight! Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us.
Jane (artfully graced)