World Championship of Sand Sculpting

Name: World Championship of Sand Sculpting
Address: Seattle, WA, US
Telephone: (360) 271-0865

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World Championship of Sand Sculpting

Dedicated to sand sculptors around the world. In 1986 one of the first organized sand castle competitions took place in the small town of Whiterock, BC.

The event was successful in attracting over 100,000 spectators. Unfortunately the small town was unable to handle such large crowds. The community council decided to cancel future sand sculpting events at this small town. At that time it must have seemed like sand sculpting events would never get off the ground even considering the huge popularity. Fortunately for these artists, not far away in a

town known as Harrison’s Hot Springs, BC, a local Lions group, headed by John Green thought there would be potential for a sandcastle event in Harrison Hot Springs. He persuaded the Lions Club and the Chamber of Commerce members to make an investment in a handful of professional sculptors from Whiterock to build an exhibition sculpture on the beach at Harrison’s Hot Springs. This first event in the spring of 1987 was a local success so they decided to hold a contest in the Fall of 1987 that attracted teams from Seattle and Vancouver to compete for a $2000 first prize. Compared to current day sand sculpting contests that range from 21 – 27 hours, this team contest was only 4 hours long. The event continued to grow throughout the late 80′s into the 90′s with several landmark achievements such as setting two world records for the tallest sand sculpture and more importantly creating a place for sand sculptors to network and set goals for the future of sand sculpting as a competitive spectators event. The most significant change in professional sand sculpting came in 2009. It became apparent after 22 years, what had come to be known as the World Championship of Sand Sculpting in Harrison’s Hot Springs was not going to take place. A shift in political and developmental policy at Harrison’s had forever closed the doors on the historic event. Even though the global sand sculpting community had never fully come to recognise the event as the one true World Championship, its loss was no less painful for all the artists that had attended it over the years. A small group of passionate artists that included Suzanne Altamare, widow to the late Mark Altamare under took the daunting task of finding a new home for the World Championships. Suzanne, a talented sand sculptor herself, was experienced and well-respected by both sand sculptors and event organisers. Her passion for the advancement of professional sand sculpting events as well as the advancement of the artists themselves is unlike anything this writer has ever known. It would not be long before a new location was found. In the fall of 2010 in a small town outside of Seattle , WA known as Federal Way, a new World Championship of Sand Sculpting was held. While the event was far from perfect, it had successfully achieved what no single event in sand sculpting history had done before. This event now had qualifying events in seven different countries! For the first time events around the globe opened up their doors and cooperated. A major advantage in this new open door policy was the ability to share travel costs of artists which in some cases had been up to the artist to cover. Much work is still needed to continually improve the system of professional sand sculpting. For now it seems that a hand full of artists have taken the lead. From what I have seen, there is nothing that can stop them.

2011 is the 25th anniversary of the World Championship. This year the event will be spit up over several locations. Fort Myers Beach will host the solo division. Siesta Key, FL by way of the Crystal Classic will host the Doubles. Teams is waiting confirmation and the Tournament of champions will be held in federal Way , WA.

06/05/2025

This Art & Photography Books item by DamonLangloisDesign has 12 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Canada. Listed on Apr 28, 2025

10/24/2024

Enter to win one of 4 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Oct 13-Oct 25, 2024. We are giving away 4 copies of Stories In Sand, The Arabian Nights ...

10/15/2024

I talked a bit about the Worlds in the article.

Times Colonist Islander article on Damon Langlois and his book, Stories In Sand, The Arabian Nights. An incredibly important book about the world of sand sculpting. It shows the struggle against time, gravity, fatigue, and weather.

10/04/2024

Hey my American amigos! Is my Amazon listing actually working? I can't see it properly being from Canada. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1739014626/ref=sr_1_1?

Stories in Sand, The Arabian Nights is part art and part storybook. Aladdin, Sinbad, Alibaba and many other known and unknown stories from the Arabian Nights are illustrated by photographed sculptures created by the best sand artists in the world. Stories in Sand began ten years ago with the crea...

10/02/2024

after a few months of fandangling, I finally have my book, Stories In Sand on Amazon. Kinda. It seems to only be available in Canada and Mexico. I am not America worthy, nor am I "Buy now" worthy.

Here it is, Free shipping (at least for you) and 10% off even.

A book to entertain, educate and inspire. Stories in Sand, The Arabian Nights is part art and part storybook. Aladdin, Sinbad, Alibaba and many other known and unknown stories from the Arabian Nights are illustrated by photographed sculptures created by the best sand artists in the world. Stories...

07/05/2024

Happy July 4th my friends down south!

03/14/2024

I sent the files for print today! I underestimated how much time I would spend refining the book when it came time to green-light the printing. This is an insane amount of work folks! This art history in the making. This might be the best capture of the golden era of sand sculpture. I will not have books here in time for Texas SandFest - The Official Texas Sand Sculpture Festival "Texas SandFest But soon after! I am undecided on how big this print run will be. 350 or 500. Whatever that is it will be a collectors edition because the next print will be by a publisher or not again. I still appreciate pre-orders. You can do that here. https://dasmopublications.etsy.com/ca/listing/1560977509/stories-in-sand-the-arabian-nights-a

03/05/2024

I get the question "Why did you make this book?"

I was compelled.

💥 Me and 72 of the best sand artists had created this masterpiece in the desert, which had thousands of hours invested in it, and was cinematic in scope. We made a small village sculpted entirely from sand where the sculptures told the stories from The Arabian Nights. It was like nothing anyone had ever experienced before.

⛈ Then it was destroyed by a freak storm and we rebuilt it.

It was not only an unbelievable artistic feat but it is also a good story, a legend in the sand sculpting community.

But...only a handful of people ever experience it or even know about it.

📸I had all these amazing photographs of the work but I also had these shortened versions of the stories I had rewritten for the artists.

I was the artistic director, and I wanted each sculptor to put themselves into their piece, so I gave them a shortened story that their sculpture assignment was based on. This way they could put their interpretation into it. The results speak for themselves.

🏰 I had often thought I should make a book from these stories and my photos. It nagged me for years and when the tenth anniversary approached, it motivated me to start. Once I made a sample page, I was compelled to keep going. This was a better way to enjoy this masterpiece of sand art. A book could be enjoyed at the surface level of 🙌 "Wow, that's cool"🙌 which is generally how sand art is enjoyed. This work was deeper though. There were stories behind the wow factor. In this form, these stories could be absorbed over time and revisited over a longer arc which was not possible with the festival. It was only open for a few months.

There are also deeper levels to this book. We were a tribe of international sculptors who came together, faced intense obstacles, overcame our egos, and made something beautiful together. I do have a few of my own short stories in the book that speak to that but the entire book, with these stories from the Arabian Nights, is also an allegory to that journey.

The frame story of Scheherazade is one where she bravely puts herself in harm's way and uses her ingenuity to first stall King Shahryar from killing the all young women in his realm. (you will read the story soon). She tells him these tales, that begin with themes of violence, irony, and greed then slowly transitions to themes of humor, forgiveness, and retribution. Over one thousand and one nights, her words heal his heart and mind. He becomes a good man again and they marry and have children.

More of this can't hurt in this world, can it?

Stories In Sand is now fully funded. It's happening. Thanks to all my friends, family, and interested strangers who have given their support so far. Now it is the final 48 hours! So still time to get a copy, or two, or five. It will make a great icebreaker and conversation starter!
👇 Go here 👇
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/damonlanglois/stories-in-sand-the-arabian-nights-a-book

02/29/2024

Discovered a way to share the news here on Facebook!

If you’ve had the pleasure of viewing the work at Parksville’s Beachfest, you won’t want to miss this!

02/26/2024

Once upon a time in Q8.
🙌The People of Stories In Sand.🙌

Our story of building this park is told through allegory in Stories In Sand. These ancient tales from the 1001 Nights tell stories of forgiveness, epic journeys, quests, unity, triumph, tragedy, comedy, and romance. This is what we experienced there, building this sculpture park.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/damonlanglois/stories-in-sand-the-arabian-nights-a-book

Not sure if I will have time to make everyone into a trading card 😅 here is Bob Atisso Cali Molina Katsuhiko Chaen of 鳥取砂丘　砂の美術館［The Sand Museum］ fame!

02/25/2024

Address

Seattle, WA

Telephone

(360) 271-0865

Website

http://www.worldchampionshipsandsculpting.com/

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