UPDATE: We’ve added awards won by sculptures to this post. Yay, winners!

Holy crap! Coastal Humboldt weather doesn’t get any better than Saturday. Like, it was hot. At the beach. When does that happen? 

Luckily for the folks at Friends of the Dunes, they’d scheduled their 18th annual Sand Sculpture Festival for this unpredictable, unicorn-sliding-down-a-rainbow day. Your Lost Coast Outpost was drawn out of its apartment by the sickening beauty of it all and ended up snapping shots of all 25 sculpture entries. A few of ‘em were great. Many were passable. Some were done by kids. 

So here they are, your complete 2013 gallery of sand digger labors of love. (Note: we left early, but if someone from FOD, or whoever, wants to email the winners to lostcoastoutpost@gmail.com, we will absolutely update this post with that info. Thx.)

#1 - “Non-Natic Caterpillar” by Beach Babes

#2 - “100 Years of ‘Lucky Lumberjack’” by HSU

#3 - “Snorlax” by Team Rocket

#4 - “Humboldt Squid” by Redwood Coast Montessori

#5 - “Moonstone Beach Sandcastle Club”

Staff Pick #6 - “Like a Sturgeon (On the Beach For the Very First Time)” by Northcoast Environmental Center

#7 - “Laco-Motion” by LACO

#8 - “Last Grazing Beach Garmer”

People’s Choice #9 - “View From the Rear” by Wildberries

#10 - “Lunar Village” by The Moss’s

#11 - “Happy Honu” by Louie’s Team

#12 - “Sun and Moon” by The Sandpipers

Best of Show, Photographer’s Pick #13 - “Classic Castle” by Chris Hansen, Mark Wiliams and Dick Whitley

#14 - “Tree Gnome More” by NHS

Most Dedicated Diggers #15 - “Octopus’s Garden” by Love the Beach

#16 - “That’s a Face” by Us

#17 - “Celebrate Marriage Equality” by The Blue Ravens

Golden Shovel #18 - “Don’t Be Koi” by Japhy’s

#19 - “Global Warming at the North Pole” by The Iglooramuseses.

#20 - “Buddha Pariniruana” by Tobias Griggs

#21 - “Octo-π” by 2 Teens and a Mom

Most Imaginative #22 - “Inkspell” by The Dragons

#23 - “SpongeBob Goes to the Beach”

#24 - “Sands of Time” by The Buntickers

#25 - “It’s the Eye of the Tiger” by The Buntickers

-Fin-