Making Sand Sculptures, a Global - Sport?!

Sand Sculptures are a whole lot more than those shoreline sand castles many of us made, back in the day. Here's a sample of what I found, looking for something else:

• "Sand Sculpture Festival"
  This website is probably about a Sand Sculpture Festival that may have been in the Netherlands.
  • The home page has a cryptic message:
    "17 March 2008
    We are not going to the English Riviera
    "20 February 2008
    We are going to the English Riviera!"
  • The "PHOTOS" and "FACTS" buttons lead you to a gallery of photos of sand sculptures, and a pretty good discussion of the theory and practice of sand sculpting.
• "Annual Sand Sculpture Contest
  Point Reyes National Seashore website, America
  • Their 27th Annual Sand Sculpture Contest is at at Drakes Beach, Sunday, August 31, 2008: Labor Day Weekend Sunday.
  • One of last year's winners:
    
    (from National Park Service, used w/o permission)
    
    "2007 Sand Sculpture Contest: Family Group 1st Place Award Winner: Entry #32: The Little Engine That Could, by Jones/Schiltgen Family"
• "Indian sand sculptor wins top honours at Berlin fest"
  The Times of India (June 14, 2008)
  • Sudarshan Pattnaik won with a very relevant and educational sand sculpture on (what else?) Global Warming.
  • "NEW DELHI: By choosing 'global warming' — the hottest topic in the world today — as the theme of his sand sculpture at the Berlin International sand artists' competition, India's Sudarshan Pattnaik caught the eyes of the public and the jury alike to win the first prize.
    "His 25-feet-tall sand sculpture screamed aloud the impending disaster that the world is going to face from the global warming phenomenon, which has already shrunk a major source of water — glaciers — and changed the weather cycle while raising the sea level."
    
    (from Yahoo!News & Reuters, used w/o permission)
• "Sudarshan Pattnaik's global warming sculpture won people's choice prize"
  OdishaToday.com (May 31, 2008)
  • Sudarshan Pattnaik used the same theme, with a different sculpture, at the Berlin People's Choice Awards. And won.
  • "Bhubaneswar (Orissa): Noted sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik on Saturday won People's Choice prize at the 1st Moscow International Sand Sculpture Championship held in Russia.
    "The artists from Italy won the 'Jury Choice', while Ireland won the 'Sculptor Choice' prize in this championship.
    "Pattnaik had created 15 feet high Hindu god Ganesh to create awareness among with people on the potential dangers of global warming at the International Sand Championship."
  • apparently, in Odisha Global Warming only has "potential dangers."

Even with all that relevance, I still think making sand castles is fun.