Parksville sand sculpture champs crowned, vandals disrupt event

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Abe Waterman’s piece on display at Parksville’s Community Park. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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“Maybe you don’t have a good relationship or you’re not close to somebody — just knocking those out of the way, and moving on,” Waterman said.

Hailing from Prince Edward Island, this is Waterman’s first top prize at the Parksville event, after competing several times previously.

Waterman, 45, said time management is a constant battle in competitive sand sculpting.

“The biggest challenge generally is always the clock, trying to finish in time. Thirty hours seems like a long time if you’re not used to spending that kind of amount of time on a sand sculpture, but it ends up being a crunch to try and fit everything in.”

Waterman, a longtime professional sand sculptor, shifted from shaping ice to sand as a career artist.

He’s headed to southern California to create a sculpture for a San Diego beach festival.

“Sand keeps me really busy, as it does most people here who travel around and do this full-time,” Waterman said.

In the doubles category, the competitors’ choice award went to Henneke Supply (Netherlands) and Helena Bangert (Belgium) for their entry ‘Touched by the Beast.’

A beast-like figure represents nature and beauty, Supply said, which is looking at a butterfly and trying to get a girl’s attention.

On the lap of the beast, the girl is lost in her screen.

Henneke Supply (L) and Helena Bangert (R) in front of their creation ‘Touched by the Beast.’ (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

“She’s on the phone, just disappeared, and she’s not in connection,” Supply said.

It conveys the message: ‘Do you want to be touched by technology, or nature?’

Supply is honoured to create art in front of so many people in Parksville.

“If you look around here, sand sculpture has gotten to a pretty amazing level I think, and this is amazing to be part of that.”

Thomas Koet, who has a long history of success at the Parksville Sand Sculpting Competition & Exhibition, is adding to an already impressive resume.

He won the competitors’ choice this year in the solo division for his entry ‘Daddy’s Little Monster.’

“This is a rough-looking biker, but it turns out if you look a little bit closer, he’s a sweetheart, and he’s really enjoying time with his daughter, and his daughter is actually a little monster, but it doesn’t stop anybody from loving her.”

‘Daddy’s Little Monster’ by Thomas Koet, a world-renowned sand sculptor. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Koet, who’s from the Netherlands and now resides in Florida, typically creates rough pen-and-paper sketches before executing his plan.

He said it’s critically important to properly balance how much sand to use for the various components.

Koet was the competitors’ choice winner in the solo division in 2023 and 2024 in Parksville, while he was the solo category champion last year.

‘It’s All Relative’ by Brian Wigelsworth and Dan Belcher of the United States of America.

Doubles entry by Sue McGrew (USA) and Dimitry Klimenko (Russia)

Popular among children and families visiting the competition grounds Sunday evening, Damon Langlois of Victoria, B.C. came in fourth place in the soloist division for his entry ‘Free Hugs.’

Vandalism

Officials and competitors in the doubles category were scrambling early Sunday when portions of the site had been ransacked by a senseless case of overnight vandalism.

Festival president Cheryl Dill said four doubles category structures were damaged, as was the berm showcasing key corporate partners.

The ‘Beauties and Beasts’ sculpture at the front gate was decimated, which serves as a popular picture-taking element.

Repairs are ongoing to branding sculpture near the front gate of the competition area. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

As a result of the vandalism spree, the doubles teams elected not to award a competitors’ choice winner, opting to evenly split prize earnings instead.

Dill told NanaimoNewsNOW they were “devastated” to realize how much damage was done.

She said two feet had been taken off the top of two of the hardest-hit doubles entries.

Stating this kind of adversity is not uncommon as sculptors have to deal with occasional natural collapses, Dill said the impacted competitors were hard at work making repairs and refinements throughout Sunday.

“They rallied, everybody was encouraging each other, hugging each other, there was a few tears and then we figured okay ‘how are we going to move forward?'”

Dill said a shovel inflicted significant damage to the advertisers’ berm near the front gate, defacing seven corporate partners during the early morning incident.

Damaged, for now, the Evergreen Hospitality Group logo was expected to be restored shortly. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Most of the corporate berm had been restored by Sunday night.

Stating the perimeter fencing was sealed shut around the competition area overnight, Dill said it appears multiple people are responsible.

Dill said security cameras in the Community Park, combined with helpful tips from the public, are advancing an active Oceanside RCMP investigation.

“The RCMP has some essential information to help us out,” Dill said.

She conceded that on-site security, which was in place early Sunday, will need to be reinforced to better protect the standing sculptures.

The sand sculptures, located behind the Parksville Curling Club, can be viewed by donation daily from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. until Aug. 16.

At nearly six-feet-tall, vandals scaled the perimeter fence, early on Sunday, July 12 and damaged several sand sculptures. (Image Credit: Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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