Teams at Cannon Beach’s 61st event wore slickers and wetsuits to turn drenched sand into sasquatches, tyrannical pugs, and even a few castles.
Welcome to Beach Week, our annual celebration of the best place on Earth.
Minutes before the start of the 61st annual Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest, teams in raincoats huddled together and not-so-secretly hoped the event would get called off. Heavy rain formed deep trenches in the sand they were soon expected to sculpt, and the forecast showed no signs of letting up. “This extra soggy sand is throwing a wrench into it,” said Karlen Trucke from team Wine Castlers. “Sand, when it’s this wet, will collapse under its own weight.” But if the coastal community canceled an event due to inclement weather, they would never get anything done.
The starting horn blared, and contestants in every division plunged shovels and their bare hands into the sand. A man in a wetsuit ran by towing a wagon piled high with tools and a big stick. Another man pedaled a homemade contraption to pump out water collecting on his plot. Teams had five hours to build something impressive out of nothing, or rather, out of sludge.
“Welcome to the Oregon Coast,” first-time judge Bo Ensign said.
Contestants spread out their quivers of building tools that included shovels, buckets, spray bottles, and plywood forms.
Photo by Christine Dong
Team members of The Hey! Stackers delegate tasks to stay on track during the five hours of allotted build time.
Photo by Christine Dong
Judges Bo Ensign and Kyle Genin show off the spoils.
Photo by Christine Dong
See the full story on Dwell.com: This Coastal Oregon Town Hosts an Epic Annual Sandcastle Contest. This Year? Rain—Lots of It
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