The only thing better than watching someone create a giant sandcastle is watching someone else blow it up.
The Travel Channel is doing just that as part of its Sand Blasters competition at the foot of Thomas Street in Pacific Beach Saturday, Sept. 30, and Sunday, Oct. 1, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The event will be taped as part of the network’s Beach Weekend 2007 broadcast, and the public is invited to come witness the creation “¦ and the destruction.
Eight, two-person teams will battle for a $20,000 prize. The teams have 11 hours over the weekend to complete their sculptures against the usual obstacles of time, weather and sand quality. However, organizers have included an unexpected hurdle: explosives.
Periodically, one of the sand castles in-progress will be blown up, forcing the sculptors to start over from scratch.
“The tricky part is that if [your sculpture] does get blown up, you want to make sure its at the beginning of the actual shooting, because you have a chance to come back and get another pile of sand and re-build” said Margie Hall, Travel Channel spokeswoman. “If you’re at the end, you don’t have that much time.”
While there is no theme to direct participants in their sculpture design, Hall found that last year many participants brought more than one sketch or design possibility.
“People pick a really intricate piece to begin with and if, for some reason, they didn’t get blown up, well that was great and they could finish it,” Hall said. “But if not, they would come up with a second and third sculpture that wouldn’t necessarily take as much time so they could work faster and get it done to try and win the money.”
According to Hall, the unusual event was created when the channel was looking for new and interesting specials for their annual Beach Week programs.
“We wanted something different that wasn’t your normal ‘Top 10 countdown of beaches,'” Hall said. “This seemed really cool, really out of the ordinary and something that everybody could have a lot of fun with. Who doesn’t like to blow things up?”
Hall ensures that the event is safe, with a pyrotechnic specialist overseeing all explosives, and explosions occurring only when participants have cleared the area.
Chris McGee will host and provide play-by-play announcements of the event along with co-host, commentator and sand sculpting expert, Vanessa Vander Pluym. The competition is created in association with and is sanctioned by the World Sand Sculpting Academy.
All eight sand structures will be blasted at the end of the competition on Sunday at approximately 3 p.m.
The Sand Blasters special will premiere on the Travel Channel during Beach Weekend 2007, airing March 3 and 4, 2007.
For more information on the World Sand Sculpting Academy, visit www.wssa.info.