Thirty hours, four days and many piles of sand later, this year’s Sand Sculpting Competition in Parksville has crowned its solo and doubles team winners.
A proud highlight of the Parksville community, the competition brings in many world-class sand sculptors from around the globe to Vancouver Island each year.
This year’s solo champion, however, calls Vancouver Island home.
Peter Vogelaar created a meticulously crafted sand sculpture depicting the late American rock legend Jimi Hendrix.
Vogelaar’s award-winning creation, titled “Wild Thing,” is a nod to this year’s competition theme, “Wild Things - From Here to the Galapagos.”
“The theme was very broad this year. It could’ve been anything to do with the environment, anything that was considered wild,” said Wendy Sears, Event Manager for the Parksville Beach Festival.
The winners of this year's doubles competition were Jacinthe Trudel and Jonathan Bouchard for their two-sided turtle sculpture.
The competition, which began on July 12, is part of the annual Parksville Beach Festival and is currently in its tenth year.
This year, there were seven doubles teams and 15 soloists competing for more than $40,000 in prizes.
The rules are simple: you may only use sand and water to create your pieces. And each year, those two tools are used to create dozens of eccentric sand sculptures.
Although the competition is now over, the sand sculptures will remain on display for the public until August 19.
The festival will also host free summer concerts every Friday and Saturday, and will be collecting votes on favourite sculptures from park visitors to crown a “People’s Choice Award” at the end of its tenure.
