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Builder digging himself in deep

Long weekend full of diverse hobbies

By: Melissa Martin

Posted: 08/5/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Curtis Fehr packs sand into his creation -- a massive sandcastle at Grand Beach. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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Eve Lyne Findlay, a summer student at the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia, shows how to spin wool during St. James Pioneer Heritage Days Saturday afternoon. Rain on Saturday forced the festival to cancel outdoor activities such as Highland dancing, aboriginal hoop dancing and drumming. A sunnier outlook for today and Monday should put a bit more spin into the festival, as well as others going on this long weekend in Manitoba -- Folklorama, the Icelandic Festival, Steinbach Pioneer Days and Canada's National Ukranian Festival.

Shovel by shovel and foot by foot, the sandcastle rising over Grand Beach this weekend is set to make Manitoba history.

Or, at least its creators think it will. There's no official record for this, no formal memory of carefully measured attempts and towering finished castles. But every discipline has to start somewhere, so sculptor Curtis Fehr is starting here: with a 3.6-metre-high fortress pulled from Grand Beach's tan sands.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new record setter. The new sandcastle will be a full 1.2 metres higher than Fehr's previous highest creation, but still far from the limits of what is possible. "We'll see if this one stands," Fehr said, poised atop the plywood forms that pack the sand together. "We know we can go higher."

First things first: get this castle going. After working through the long weekend, Fehr and his co-carver, longtime Manitoba sandcastle master Randy Ptashnick, hope to have the castle completed by Monday -- depending on the weather. It could take about 18 to 20 hours to stack and carve the thing, and that's a long time to spend labouring in the rain -- especially for a hobby which, when all is said and done, is mostly all in fun.

Fehr, a marketing consultant in Winnipeg, got his start when he bought a cabin near Grand Beach five years ago. At first, he'd head down to the beach to build sandcastles with his kids, shaping the sand with brightly-coloured plastic toys.

But while most parents leave it at that, Fehr took it a step further. Once bit by the sandcastle bug, he spent hours learning how to build bigger and better structures online; the payoff was the smiles on people's faces as they watched a sculpture grow. "It's kind of cool that you can finish something, and not many people know how to do this," he says. "I could just be sitting on the beach, or I could do something that will add some fun to the beach."

But first comes a lot of hard work. It will take nine tonnes of sand to build Fehr's and Ptashnick's record-setting castle, and it had to be moved one shovelful at a time. The curiosity of beachgoers helps pass the time; people like to stop and watch it grow. Over the years, Fehr has met folks from across the world right there by the boardwalk.

Now, he's hoping they are tickled enough by the 3.6-metre creation they turn out again this weekend. Fehr's and Ptashnick's mammoth sandcastle is in some ways a promo for the beach's International Sand Castle Building Competition, which takes place during Grand Beach Fest on Saturday. The annual contest has a $2,500 prize up for grabs, and it's free for everyone to attend.

Once it's all over, nine tonnes of sand will go back down to the beach and Fehr and Ptashnick will go back to the drawing board. Because once they've set the Manitoba record, there's a whole lot of building left to do... and if they build it, the crowds will come.

"This is such an awesome beach," Fehr said. "Maybe this is the start of something new."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 5, 2012 A5

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