SandBlast celebrates wildlife, creativity, recycling

Eleven teams compete over five hours in the wildlife and free-form categories to create sand sculptures during the SandBlast amateur competition, held Nov. 19 at the Manatee Public Beach.

The team from Manatee Technical College celebrates Nov. 19 after receiving the runner-up award in the wildlife category for their “Toothless” dragon sand sculpture at Keep Manatee Beautiful’s America Recycles Day at Sandblast. MTC’s team was sponsored by Innovate Florida. This year’s competition was held at the Manatee Public Beach, 4000 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach. Sand sculptures will remain on display — weather permitting — until Dec. 12. Islander Photos: Kristin Swain

The Bradenton Christian High School art department sand sculpting team, sponsored by Linger Longer, is all smiles on learning they took first-place in the wildlife category at SandBlast for their sculpture “Bee With Us Forever.”

The Manatee Technical College team sculpts its award-winning “Toothless” sand sculpture Nov. 19 during the SandBlast amateur competition at the Manatee Public Beach.

This year’s professional sculpture, “Wildlife and the Arts,” is on display until Dec. 12 at Manatee Public Beach next to the lifeguard tower. The sculpture was created by Team Sandtastic. It took 80 tons of sand and two days to create.