| The Space Coast Open Sand Sculpting Competition | | CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SPACE COAST OPEN WINNERS!
FIRST PLACE: THOMAS KOET OF MELBOURNE, FLORIDA
SECOND PLACE: MICHEL LEPIRE OF QUEBEC, CANADA
THIRD PLACE: SANDY FEET OF SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS
PEOPLE'S CHOICE WINNER: MICHEL LEPIRE
It's fun to see the different ideas and designs the artists come up with. See who makes an artistic statement, laugh at the whimsical designs and be amazed by all the detail and realism that can be made right before your eyes! Who will win? Find out at the end of the fourth day when the sculptors and local experts have judged the sculptures and declare the winners.
What makes this event so exciting is that each master sculptor gets only four days to outshine their competition. The first morning you can see an incredible physical effort of frantic shoveling and packing the wet sand into wooden forms. Packing the sand down with lots of water makes it stronger and more sculpt-able. For making their sculptures taller and more impressive most sculptors use wooden forms that must be removed prior to sculpting. Some sculptors might attempt to make their sculpture as tall as ten foot, just to impress the public, while risking a spectacular collapse. Others might take a different approach and put more of their energy into simply sculpting the most beautiful sculpture around.
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 |  | Dan Doubleday of Treasure Island, Florida was discovered sculpting on a beach in Santa Cruz, California many years ago. His work made such a deep impression that he was invited to his first master event just months later.
Dan is a successful competitive sculptor, winning prizes not only all over North America, but also in France and China. He won the coveted Sculptors’ Choice award when he first entered the World Championship in 1996. He now holds 8 World Champion medals and many Sculptors’ Choice awards.
Dan likes to push the envelope with daring new ideas. It is always interesting to contemplate the symbolism in his work. His work effectively showcases a repertoire of textures and mechanical and natural subjects that he has accumulated over many years | | back to top | |
| Meredith Corson of Treasure Island, Florida was raised in New Bedford, MA. She relocated to Florida in 1980 and started sculpting sand as a hobby. In 1996 she met Dan Doubleday at a competition and the two teamed up as competition and business partners in Sanding Ovations.
Meredith is a very ambitious and competitive sculptor. She is the first woman to win a solo medal at the World Championships. Also she won in the Doubles division of the World Championships.
In addition to her World Championship titles, Meredith has medaled more than 30 times, has earned 8 People’s Choice awards, 2 Sculptor’s Choice awards and 2 host organization awards.
Meredith and her partner, Dan Doubleday, appeared on all three episodes of the Travel Channel’s Sand Blasters: The Extreme Sand Sculpting Championship, winning 1st place in 2007. |  | | back to top | |
|  | John Gowdy (The East Coast Cowboy) now lives in Castelfranco, Italy, having retired from 27 years of service with the Atlantic City Fire Dept. (14 as captain) and 7 years as a beach lifeguard in Atlantic City. He has relocated to a little town near Venice 3 years ago, and enjoys eating pizza, drinking red wine, and basically relaxing after many years of work in the U.S.
He has won many national and international sand competitions and loves to carve marble and paint portraits. | | back to top | |
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|  | Marc Lepire, of Charlesbourg, Quebec, Canada, is a second generation sculptor, has been performing around the world sculpting sand, ice, and wood.
Working out of Quebec City full time for the family business ``Sculpture Michel Lepire`` he looks forward to taking this time off to come on this event. Winner of many awards and sculptor of the ice hotel in Quebec City, he prides himself in being a man of the people. | | back to top | |
| Rob Tobey of Kissimmee, Florida has been a professional sand sculptor for 20 years. A Master Sand Sculptor, most of his sculptures have been carved as live shows and promotional exhibitions at malls, festivals and state fairs. Rob has carved sand in 27 of the 50 states.
In 2007 he won People's Choice in the American Sand Sculpture Championship at Ft. Myers Beach.
Rob specializes in carving nature, fantasy and architectural scenes and is especially fond of dragons.
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|  | Lucinda “Sandy Feet” Wierenga of South Padre Island, Texas has won a modest amount of international fame for her home town of South Padre Island with her sand sculpting skills, competing at major events all around the world for over two decades. She has participated in huge sand projects all over the world and has been the go-to resource for countless sand sculpting how-to articles.
A former high-school English teacher, Lucinda has taught literally thousands of people how to build a better sand castle. The second edition of her 2005 book - "Sandcastles Made Simple" - came out last spring. In 2007 she opened what might well be the first and only Sandcastle Academy in the United States: the Sandbox Inn of South Padre Island. | | back to top | |
| Twelve years ago, Thomas Koet of Melbourne, Florida started sculpting sand in the Netherlands. With a Masters Degree in Industrial Design Engineering, he quickly learned the basics of sculpting sand and designing sculptures that are well appreciated by the audience. Thomas decided to explore this art form more thoroughly, traveling to events all over the world. He has won many first places, sculptor’s choice and other titles in contests world wide.
He has been a designer for some of Europe's largest sand sculptures. He and Jill Harris are partners in Sandsational Sand Sculpting Inc., a world renowned and sought after American sand sculpting company.
His artistic goal is to make art that is accessible and enjoyable for everybody. Ideally his sculptures would put a smile on your face while also giving you something to think about. He has created sculptures all over Europe, China, Korea, Japan, Canada and the U.S.
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| Jim Richardson of Palm Bay, Florida is a long time resident of Brevard County. He has lived in Palm Bay for over 40 years. In 1981 Jim won the grand prize in the sand sculpture competition in Paradise Beach.
Years later an admirer of his sculpture on Paradise Beach invited him to sculpt sand at a special event at Disney. Before he knew it, Jim combined his career at the Brevard County Health Department with his work as a sand sculptor. The reaction of the spectators watching him create is what delights Jim most. He loves it when his sculptures put smiles on faces.His works always tell a story and there are always delightful little details hidden in his sculptures. | | back to top | |
| Michel Lepire of Quebec, Canadais a sculptor of sand and ice as well as a a sculptor of fruit,vegetables, and butter for the culinary world. He is the winner of the Sand Sculpting World Championships of 2003 and has won numerous medals and trophies over the last 13 years.
Michel is also the organizer of the International Sand Sculpture competition of Québec and the originator and artistic director of the project “Sand of Time” at Expo Québec for that city's 400th anniversary.
He has taken part in several projects throughout the world. He founded Sculptures Michel Lepire, Inc. in 1994, and in 1998 was joined by his son Marc in the family business.
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|  | Attilio Steve Topazio of Newport, Rhode Island As the story goes, way back at the beginning of the century Steve was creating a dragon out of sand on a beach in Maine. Curious, he just knew there had to be a better way to sculpt sand and so he turned to the internet. There he found the world of professional sand sculpting. Already armed with a fine arts degree he searched out two Master Sand Sculptors living in New England and they taught him the techniques he need to pursue his new found passion.
With a couple of years of practice in the "sand pit" he was given the opportunity to compete in his first Masters sand sculpting event and from that point never looked back. Steve has since been competing wherever and whenever possible in Master events for the last eight years. He has gained the respect of some of the best sand carvers in the world and is honored to be part of the Space Coast Open Master Sand Sculptor Competition.
Steve heads his own sand sculpting company, based in Rhode Island and calls Newport his home beach. | | back to top | |
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