A Celebration of Sand and Creativity at Capitola Beach Festival
Capitola Beach was buzzing with activity on a misty Saturday afternoon as visitors from Santa Cruz County and the Bay Area gathered to witness the annual Sand Sculpture Contest. The event, part of the Capitola Beach Festival, featured a variety of teams showcasing their artistic talents, all under the theme “Vacation Snapshots.” The festival, which brings together families and art enthusiasts, is a vibrant celebration of creativity and community.
“We’ve got about 35 sand sculptures on the beach and they’re just starting to shape up,” said Laurie Hill, a festival co-organizer and announcer for the Lighted Nautical Parade. “Next to that is our cornhole event and that’s kind of rag-tag right now, but I always think of it as we put opportunity out on the beach and people come out and play.”
The Capitola Beach Festival, organized by dedicated volunteers, has roots in the historic Capitola Begonia Festival, which began in the 1950s. Originally inspired by the Capitola Water Fantasy Carnival, founded by Peggy Slatter Matthews, the first female Councilmember of Capitola, the festival included boat parades, swimming competitions, and a water ballet. After the water carnival ended in 1954, the Begonia Festival continued as a Labor Day tradition until its final year in 2017, marking its 65th anniversary.
This year’s Capitola Beach Festival marks its seventh year and continues many of the traditions of the Begonia Festival, including the Lighted Nautical Parade held on Saturday evening. The weekend-long event features family-friendly activities such as the Little Wharf 3-Miler Fun Run, which attracted around 3,000 participants, followed by cornhole games on the beach, a scavenger hunt, an art station for kids, and the Sand Sculpture Contest.
Unique Creations Under the “Vacation Snapshots” Theme
Hector Cristobal, a handyman from East Palo Alto, returned for his second year in the Sand Sculpture Contest. He brought his tools to create an octopus in the sand, designed to allow children to take pictures inside the tentacles.
“The theme is ‘Vacation Snapshots,’ so I want people to be able to take a picture with it,” said Cristobal. “It’s an octopus and there will be a pit in the middle of the tentacles so that a little kid can go in there and get their picture taken.”
Further down the beach, Matt Ritzman of Oakland was crafting a classic Capitola postcard design in the sand. His daughter, Josie, suffers from NBIA disorder, and Ritzman raises awareness through the group “Sandcastles for Josie.”
“With this year’s theme of ‘Vacation Snapshots,’ I thought postcards and there’s a little sandcastle in front of it,” said Ritzman. “I need the surface to be flat and consistent and it’s really hard to get sand to be consistent. And so, I’m using different tools to keep it even and this rain is actually helpful because it’s keeping the sand wet.”
John Betts of San Jose and his team took the theme in a more imaginative direction by creating a scaled-down version of Area 51, a popular vacation spot for extraterrestrials. The team wore tinfoil hats while sculpting a spaceship and monolith, reminiscent of the film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“We decided to do an obelisk and there’s a flying saucer there, and a wormhole,” said Betts. “We were just playing around with the idea of an absurd vacation spot.”
The Golino family, traveling from across the Bay Area, participated in the festival with a massive crab and camera sculpture titled “Snappin’ Selfies.” Martin Bond, who designed the piece, explained the concept.
“We like to do big sea animals and we wanted to incorporate a camera, and lots of people do selfies on this beach, and the snapping because he’s a crab,” said Bond. “It’s deep.”
Andrea Robicheau and Liv Johnson, cousins from Mountain View and Santa Cruz, had nearly completed a sailboat sculpture titled “Come Sail Away.” This was their first time participating in the contest, but they had long dreamed of doing so.
“My dad died four months ago and so I am trying to do the things I’ve always wanted to do,” said Robicheau. “And I’ve always wanted to do a sand sculpture contest so I made it happen and I brought my cousin along.”
The festival also attracted visitors like Sarah Levy of Los Altos, who has attended the event for six years. She praised the creative displays and the welcoming atmosphere of Capitola Beach.
“The squid and the octopus are really impressive and the banana slugs and the kids making the turtle there,” said Levy. “I just feel like Capitola Beach is a really welcoming and friendly spot and living in the Los Altos area, it’s not too far. And I consider this to be a celebration of the end of summer.”
Final Days of the Festival
The festival continues on Sunday with a fishing derby on the Capitola Wharf, a paddle board race, chalk art on the sea wall, and rowboat races at 1 p.m., among other activities.
For more information, visit capitolabeachfestival.com.
