“You load 16 tons, what do you get?” Tennessee Ernie Ford sang in the 1955 classic.
What you get when 10 professional sand sculptors hit Hampton Beach is a huge shortfall in weight as each large sculpture requires approximately 12 tons of sand.
The three-day 2022 Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic is being held June 16-18 this year — and don’t make the mistake of thinking a shovel, bucket and ideas for building a sand castle are the beginning and ending of what competitors will bring to the beach.
Sand sculpting on the professional level is two things: serious art with serious rewards for the best. The circuit is worldwide, and competitive sculpting takes place almost every week of the year. The Hampton Beach Classic offers $25,000 in prize money with $5,000 to the winner with an additional $2,000 in bonuses possible. Each of the contestants is guaranteed $1,500. The Hampton Beach contest is invitation-only, and the field is limited to 10 participants.
According to master sculptor and organizer Greg Grady, the spots are highly coveted, and he has dozens of professionals to choose from.
Grady, who lives in close proximity to the beach, has been the driving force behind the Classic since its inception in 2000. “We bring a free museum to the beach,” he said. “Almost all contests charge admission.”
In the 1990s, Grady lobbied the Hampton Beach Village District, which the Hampton Beach Chamber of Commerce is under, to hold a sandsculpting event for several years, to no avail. It all changed in 2000 when the sculptor was asked by the U.S. Mint to create a 10-ton replica of the New Hampshire state quarter, timed for release of the coin on Aug. 7. The sand sculpture was part of the annual Children’s Festival. According to Grady, the popularity of the replica caused festival head Bob Poole to rub the sand out of his eyes and come to him with, “We need that. We have to talk.”
As Grady likes to say about sculpting, “All of a sudden, you’re a hero on the beach.”
One measure of growth is that the contest has garnered 22 sponsors this year and is now budgeted at $150,000. Among the costs are prize money, the purchase and delivery of 200 tons of sand, 40,000 brochures and transportation, and meals and lodging for contestants. Grady does not compete in what he sees as his own contest, though son Greg Grady Jr. will.
Not just any sand will do. It must be fine with round granules, better for adhering when wet. The 200 tons of contest sand are imported from a Hudson quarry. “Sand is the No. 1 thing,” the contest organizer said. “I’m only as good as the sand. My test is whether a moist ball will hold together between two fingers.”
Some engineering skill is required to build a base. With the overall shape framed like a pyramid, a collapsed base can represent hours of wasted labor.
According to Grady Sr., Hampton Beach sand is excellent, but outside sand is brought in for consistency, as a storm can strip the best layer of sand from the beach.
A sculptor also brings a personal arsenal of palette knives and picks that could easily be mistaken for a dental kit for disparate species. Foundation forms can be constructed with 10-gallon buckets with the bottoms cut out or even selfmade wooden frames. The fixer for the outside of the finished sculpture is a sprayed-on mixture of water and Elmer’s Glue. This helps protect the work from wind and rain, two wild-card factors that can rise to the fore. “Think of the shell of an M&M,” Grady explained.
But sand-sculpting contests are only one way sand artists make money. “Competitions are just a little niche in the world of sand sculpture,” Grady said.
While Greg Grady Jr. sculpted a detailed duck on a Hampton Beach retaining wall during the hour this interview took place, he explained other opportunities for sculptors. These include weddings, birthdays, public displays, coordinating corporate team-building exercises, teaching, funerals and even a party at Richard Branson’s Necker Island home in the British Virgin Islands. Sand artists sometimes bid for jobs.
Impressively, there’s an unwritten rule in this art world that staying fresh and creative is key to the game. “I have four competitions coming up, and I’ll do four different sculptures,” Grady Jr. explained. “I’ve never done the same one twice, and I’ve done over a thousand sculptures. When you get to this level, to win you need the concept and then you have to execute it.”
“I’m looking for the ‘wow’” factor, Grady Sr. explained. He’ll serve as one of several judges at the Hampton Beach Classic. “I want something new and unique. There’s a degree of difficulty and then how the execution relates to the title interpretation. Each sculptor has to explain the work to me.”
Without risk, there is no reward. Grady’s business card has the tagline: “If you can dream it, we can do it.”
According to father and son, it’s not unusual for an artist to come up with a theme just before the contest.
“I had no idea what I was going to do before one competition,” Grady, Sr. recounted. “Getting on the plane, I saw a guy with a sand-blaster T-shirt on. It showed a helmet, and he was fully suited up with a sand-blasting gun. Bingo!” There’s a geographical flavor to each top event.
Grady Jr. recently competed in Kuwait. The top two finishers in the 2021 Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic hailed from Prince Edward Island and Carmel, Calif. Melineige Beauregard, who garnered the People’s Choice Award in last year’s voting, represented Captain Hook, Hawaii, though she has since moved to Montreal.
“It’s always a great pleasure to be chosen by the public,” Beauregard said. “I’ve carved sand in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Denmark, Canada and the USA, among other countries.”
Two Russian sand artists were going to come this year, but have since had to cancel because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Both Gradys “chase the sand world” as fulltime work. Grady Sr. previously owned Salem Auto Body for a number of years while his son spent six years in the U.S. Marine Corps. There’s a strong sense of tradition as the family has vacationed at Sheep Pond Beach at Dennis Port on Cape Cod for several generations.
Above: Mélineige Beauregard was given the Peoples’ Choice Award last year for her sand sculpture, ‘Phoenix Rising Again.’ (Photo courtesy Mélineige Beauregard)
“I put it (the Hampton Beach Classic) together like I would want to be treated at other events,” the elder Grady explained. “Bob Poole and I made Hampton’s event world-renowned from the get-go. Everyone wants to compete. I get to choose from the best sculptors in the world.”
Grady enticed sculptors for the first Hampton Beach Classic with promises of an invite to return the following year.
“Putting that first-year event together was huge,” Grady said. “I calculated what I got paid that first year. It was six cents an hour.”
Gray Jr. left his duck to the elements. No doubt it would impress whoever saw it. Still, there is an impermanence to sand sculpting that is part of the game. You’re only as good as your last sculpture.
Hampton Beach sand is excellent, but outside sand is brought in for consistency, since a storm can strip the best layer of sand from the beach.