Sand Castle Event Slated for Cardiff

Norman Richard Kraus, dean of the mega-sand castle builders, has finally found a home for his monumental Labor Day effort.

The Rancho Santa Fe designer, whose yearly sand sculptures have gained national and international attention, will re-create a 17th-Century scene complete with castle, cathedral, village townhouses and an arching bridge (an awesome feat in sand modeling) at South Cardiff State Beach.

Kraus received the official go-ahead Friday from Bill Fait, regional state beach park director, ending a two-year hiatus in the Labor Day tradition, which began in 1969 on the Del Mar beach.

Fame swelled the participants and watchers into the hundreds, forcing Kraus and his troupe of professional sand castlers to move from Del Mar after beachfront residents protested to the City Council that the three-day event outside their windows disturbed their sleep and their ocean views.

Kraus moved his castles to Ponto in south Carlsbad and to Cardiff until, two summers ago, he could not find a sandy spot where he could gain a permit for the busy end-of-summer holiday weekend.

“They (state beach park officials) wanted me to move my event to the week after Labor Day, but I refused,” Kraus explained. “This has become a tradition, and Labor Day weekend is the time when the public can come out and participate.”

Kraus said that Fait approved the Cardiff sand castle site and alloted about 60 parking spaces in the adjacent lot for the participants. He said that the Cardiff Town Council and Cardiff Chamber of Commerce, co-sponsors of the event, are seeking off-beach parking for the hundreds of expected volunteers and spectators.

“We’ll work out a shuttle service of some kind to get the people and their beach chairs and barbecues down to the site,” he said.

Most of the regulars who have helped in past sand castle classics have drifted away during Kraus’ two-year layoff. Many of them will be participating in a competing sand castle event in Pacific Beach this Labor Day weekend.

Kraus admits the Pacific Beach event and its sculptures will probably be larger than his Cardiff effort, but adds: “Biggest doesn’t mean anything to me. I want to be the best.”

George Scott, retired Walker-Scott Department Stores chief, has donated the costliest item of the event--a bulldozer and driver to prepare the sand mound needed for the sculpture, he said. Cardiff Chamber of Commerce and Town Council members are expected to handle the administrative matters so that Kraus can concentrate on the creative part.

He wants the record clear, however, that volunteers get no pay or fringe benefits for the three-day, dawn-to-dark effort.

“This is just a fun event,” he explained. “There are no prizes. It’s an event where anyone can come and watch or pitch in. It’s a great place to pose for next season’s Christmas cards.

“And soon after it’s completed, it’s gone. The tides will come and wash it away. But we will build a world-class sand sculpture and enjoy it while it lasts.”