2010 Sandcastle Champions I.B. Posse Ready for Serious Fun in the Sun and Sand

This year, IB Posse, the 2010 I.B. Sandcastle Competition Masters Division Champions, would have built a design depicting images of Star Wars, exorbitant gas prices or the effects of oil spills if they had not already used those ideas in past years.

This year's design is a secret until the competition Sunday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., but the IB-based crew of sand-sculpting aficionados often use hot topics of current popular culture as inspiration, such as last year's "Got Oil" depicting the BP oil spill, said Team Captain Leonard Gonzales. 

When West Coast Choppers was popular a few years back, I.B. Posse designed a Three Little Pigs homage titled "Wild Hogs," in which the swine were pulling the Big Bad Wolf around on Harley motorcycles.

Posse team members meet one month prior to the event to propose and vote on ideas and then execute six to eight practice sessions, mostly from 5 p.m. to dark to accommodate their days jobs.

Each practice includes building one to two elements of the final design, then in final practice put all the elements together, to build a full sculpture.

"A few years back we were in amazement at what [the 2009 champion team] Archisand was doing," Gonzales said. 

There's a little bit of braggadocio, according to Gonzales, but both teams let their skill do the talking when the contest horn goes off.

"They've beat us plenty of times, and we are more than happy to take a win from them," he said. 
 
The I.B. Posse team is made of sculptors, labor crew, a bucket team to bring water from the ocean and family members on the sidelines as support.

"Because of the long [five hour] format of the competition, fatigue is a factor, and sunscreen is a must," Gonzales said. 

As team members get dehydrated and sunburned, the support crew of family on the sidelines supplies water and sunscreen.

Similar to team members, "the sculpture can crumble from drying if too hot," according to Gonzales. 

He said that a cool-down would be nice, but "obviously rain is not preferable because it will not let us get to the finer detail points."

While weather is definitely a factor, there's no scientific analysis of optimal sand conditions, and different types of beaches have their advantages.

Jagged sand granules found at lakes stack well, whereas rounded sand grain, produced from the dulling effect of rough water movement, can lead to not being able to build up high forms.

Coarser sand lets water seep through, leading to over-watering, and sand staying moist too long, Gonzales said.

A wide variety of sand is found in areas with riptide, a river outlet or some type of soil and sand blend, which is common around lakes and rivers where "it holds together better like a clay," said Gonzales.

If sand and weather conditions and well-honed skill lead IB Posse to another first place victory this year, the team will compete in New Zealand later this year.

"Defending our championship over here will hopefully raise enough money to return to the island nation for their inaugural sandcastle contest," said Gonzales.

Both Archisand and IB Posse were invited to the Inaugural Sandcastle Competition in Christchurch but a 6.3-magnitude earthquake postponed the event in February.

Gonzales and some of the team members still made the trip and did a .

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