Builders flock to East Beach

BY STEVEN LIBOWITZ
DAILY SOUND ARTS EDITOR
Developers have bellyached for years about how difficult it is to build in Santa Barbara, what with zoning codes, building regulations and an arduous permit process. But you don’t need anything other than a few plastic tools and an active imagination to construct your own sculpture at the annual Santa Barbara Sand Castle Festival at Each Beach today.
More than 30 groups have already signed up to participate in the festival’s main activity, a sand sculpture contest, eclipsing last year’s record total of 28, said Naomi Kovacs, executive director of the Citizen’s Planning Association & Foundation, the organizations that sponsor and benefit from the event.

“Usually between five and ten teams sign up in the morning, so we could have up to 40 groups participating, which is unheard of for these sort of events,” she said.
Each team, consisting of no more than 10 people, is assigned a 16-foot by 16-foot plot near the water’s edge in front of the bathhouse. Beginning at noon, teams will have three hours to build their sand structures, working from sketches, drawing or purely from the imagination. While contestants may use tools to shape their castles, only sand, water and natural objects found on site (shells, seaweed, driftwood, etc.) can be used for decoration.
Contest categories include Sandcastles, Sand Sculptures, Castle & Sculpture Mixed Creations, plus a separate category for children 6th Grade & Under who receive no help from adults in building any creation. There will also be a “People’s Choice” award spanning all categories.
A giant King Kong, whose hand extending above the sand was large enough to accommodate people sitting inside, was one of the crowd favorites, Kovacs said.
“It looked like he’d captured you. People posed for pictures all afternoon,” she said.
Another highlight was a “really cool, big octopus,” Kovacs recalled, and “the castle that looked like Hogwarts” from Harry Potter.
“People do all sorts of things,” she said. “The year before, these guys built a castle on top of a palm of hand. They called it a ‘Hand Castle.’ They were spewing out bad puns all day long to anyone who walked by, things like ‘You’ve got to hand it to us’ and ‘Aren’t we handy?’”
But the fun at the festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., extends beyond mere castle construction.
Activities for kids include an inflatable bouncer house and slide, free sand candle-making and the Cap’n Planner’s Treasure Hunt — an area of sand blocked off where keys are hidden in the sand, some of which open a treasure chest filled with prizes. “Find a key and try the lock and if it opens you get a prize,” Kovacs said.
Winners of the popular Surf-a-Duck race – in which numbered rubber duckies race from out in the ocean to be first back to shore – win prize, including membership for 2 and a book about Lotusland; a picnic pack with gift cards to various local shops, a 6-month memberships to 24 Hour Fitness, Whiz Kids membership, and a bicycle.
“The point of the festival is to bring people down to the beach at the end of summer and celebrate the community and our natural assets: the beach, the ocean, the panoramic views we all enjoy here,” Kovacs said. “It goes along with the organization’s mission of protecting the environment.”
Musical entertainment kicks off at 10 a.m. with 60’s surf & sun music spun by DJ Gerry DeWitt, who will also play songs between sets from bands that include Kelp, Bruce Goldish, Claude Hopper and Hula Anyone? Judging (and audience viewing and voting) takes place from 3-4:15 p.m. followed by an awards ceremony at 4:30 and the Surf-a-Duck race at 5.
The structures will all be gone by morning, once the tide washes in. But that’s the whole point, Kovacs said.
“It’s not about making lasting art. It’s about the experience of building it and then letting it go. Letting nature do its thing.”
In other beachfront activities today, the cadre of swimmers joining together for a relay crossing of the Santa Barbara Channel from Santa Cruz Island to Goleta Beach — at 26 miles, the equivalent of a land-based marathon — are expected to arrive at the family beach between UCSB and the Goleta Pier in the late afternoon.
You can join the Santa Barbara Channel Swimming Association “Sandpipers” and “Ocean Ducks” in swimming the last quarter-mile, or cheer them on from your own boat or the beach, which is also the site for a barbecue banquet that gets underway at 5 p.m. The cost is $15 for adults, $10 for children, and proceeds benefit the Environmental Defense Center. Call 637-8331 or visit www.oceanducks.org.