Sculptors dazzle huge crowds at Revere Beach

REVERE ? An estimated 500,000 people swarmed to Revere Beach this past weekend, according to Revere Beach Partnership President John Hamel, to marvel at what master sand sculptors from around the world did with mere 12-ton mounds of sand.?This year the competition is a pretty level playing field,” said Chris Guinto, a former competitor of the sand sculpting world championship in Canada, who came from Key West, Fla., to compete in the competition. “In the past years you could usually tell who was going to win pretty early on in the competition, but this year I’m not so sure. We’re supposed to pick a favorite, but I’m not real sure I can out of these ones.”Dan Doubleday and his wife, Meredith Corson, are the two organizers of the competition and are sculptors themselves. Corson helped with the centerpiece sculpture, which pays homage to the armed forces in general and soldiers who raised the flag above Iwo Jima in 1945. Doubleday was a competitor, too.?We met a lot of these guys from past competitions, and that’s how were able to bring all the best sand sculptors in the world to this competition. Most of these guys all competed in the world championships,” Doubleday said. “This festival at Revere is definitely the biggest one in the world in terms of the crowd. Even at the world championship, you only have about 20 or so sculptures, and at this one, we’ve got 15 this year, so it’s pretty close.”The winner of the competition won a $14,000 prize, but there were also prizes for the People’s Choice Award and the Sculptors’ Choice Award.The main competition was judged by the sculptors themselves, who evaluated all but their own, in order to be fair. The system was based on a report card-style system with grades from A to D.Guinto’s feeling that this year the playing field was even seemed to be reflected in the judging. History was made this year when there was an unprecedented tie for first place.The judges had to give it to the sculpture that had the biggest “wow” factor, which was determined from the report cards.The winner ended up being Rusty Croft, who came to compete from California with his sculpture “Double Vision.” Second place went to Jonathan “Jobi” Bouchard for his sculpture “War: My Heart Tells Me Otherwise.” Third place was only one point behind second, and it went to Doubleday for his sculpture “Snail Trail.”?You know that past four years that I competed in this competition I won it, but second place for me is still an honor and a good accomplishment for me, I think,” Bouchard said. “And to have it come down to a tie, it was really interesting, you know? I’m definitely happy with this year’s competition.”Croft also ended up winning the Sculptors’ Choice Award, which is coveted among the sculptors as it shows appreciation from their fellow artists.The People’s Choice Award winner was Pavel Milinkov, of Moscow, for his work “Time is Running Out.”Corson said the sculptures will remain on the beach until they are destroyed by the elements, which could take up to four weeks.Now that the judging is over and the crowds mostly gone, there’s still plenty of time to check them out before nature takes its course.