The Smoke Rise and Kinnelon Blog: Sand Castle Building Contest

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Sand Castle Building Contest - Smoke Rise Days 2009

There's something about sand castles that captures my imagination. That's why I truly love the Smoke Rise Days Sand Castle Building Contest. Is it the same for you?

I'm in awe over the feats of creative sand engineering combined with intensity of cooperative effort that generates something totally unexpected. I remember one team recreating a scaled version of Lake Kinnelon complete with St. Hubert's Chapel back four or five summers ago...

Sand castles also take me back to the days of endless childhood summers when we sometimes took off for a day at the beach. Entertainment consisted of water or sand. Given 60 or 70 degree water temperature, sand quickly captured my attention and I would pour heart and soul into digging, shaping, forming and building the most preposterous castle I could imagine. True magic.

I recently described to my friend Regina - whose husband Glenn is the drummer for our very own Kinnelon Aisle Five band - the sand castle building contest. Coincidently, she had just participated in a sand castle team building exercise and learned the art [and science] of sand castle building.

Did you know that the key to high quality sand castles is WATER? That's right. The wetter the sand the better. Makes sense although I had never thought it through.

Also, don't forget to 'dribble' the wet sand mixture...

If you are interested, here are links to Sand Castle Tips and Tricks, page 2 and page 3. [Regina, are any major tips missing?]

I'm hoping that next year we enter the contest, and that Regina and her daughter join us; my daughter has started to think about what she might create.

Meanwhile, here follow the results of the 2009 Smoke Rise Days Sand Castle Building Contest.

Family Built:
1st place: Sleeping Fisherman, Westra family
2nd place: Curse of the Kraken, Schrope and Calia families
3rd place: Swimming with the Fishes, Fradkin, Matucci and Donus families

Built by Big Kids:
1st place: Turtle by Colin and Vanessa Smalley, Sophus, Aoifa and Aine Schanche
2nd place: Taj Mahal by Finn Witt
3rd place: Elephant by Hope Weinstock and Bronwyn Olstein

Built by Not as Big Kids:
1st place: Submarine by Tel Waalberg, Ryan Vasquez, Austin Tighe
2nd place: Pig Roast by Kristina Kalafsky, Samantha Ramsden, Emma Jones and Lara Ullrich
3rd place: Sports by the Thompson children

Built by Little Kids:
1st place: Smoke Rise Tower by Roshan and Tarik Narma
2nd place: Tennis Ball Roller by Olin Witt
3rd place: Volcano by Anthony Bassi and Miles Contreras

[Link to my photos of Sand Castle Building Contest entries.]

Other Smoke Rise Days contest results [from the August 1st, 2009 Smoke Rise News]:

Fishing Contest
1st catch of the day: Sydney Coutts

Most fish caught:
1st place: John Calia with 30 fish
2nd place: Max Hofbauer with 21 fish
3rd place: Matt Morreale wih 18 fish

Heaviest fish caught:
1st place: Scotty Smith, 3lb 0oz catfish
2nd place: Kevin Skvorecz, 2lb 4oz pickerel
3rd place: Colin Smalley, 2lb 0oz bass
3rd place: Andrew Tskinkelis, 2lb 0oz bass

Fishing fun facts:
44 Anglers entered this year's contest; 29 turned in catch to be counted/weighed. 157 fish were caught in 3.5 hours [i.e., 44.8 fish per hour]. Gene Orcutt has been running this contest for nearly 30 years. Thank you, Gene!

Frog Jumping Contest:
Champion: Anthony Bassi with Skipper
1st runner up: 5 time defending champion Olin Witt with Margarita 6
2nd runner up: Ryan Smith with Burt
3rd runner up: Anna Santy with Crystal

Honorable Mention for Bobby Lewis and Josh Schrope with the most impressive frog - Godzilla - a 5lb giant and the largest frog in the history of the Smoke Rise Days Frog Jumping contest.

Horseshoe Contest:
1st place: Bobby Herrington and Nino Capra
2nd place: Andy San Filippo and Jim Pitts

Many thanks to Dave Owens who adjusted the game schedule at the last moment to accommodate the increase from last year's 6 teams to this year's incredible 19! If you're interested in playing regularly, contact cn [at] craignoble [dot] com.

Minimalist Regatta [another event I am determined to participate in one of these summers]:
12 & Under Rubber Chicken - Caroline Lavallee.

There you have it for the Smoke Rise Days 2009 contests. If you'd like to share any photos, please let me know. I'd particularly like to see a photo of Frogzilla -I mean Godzilla.

I'd also love to hear whether our frog jumping contest looks anything like Serious Frog Jumping in Calaveras County... [aka Frogtown].