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Sand-slinging

Myrtle Beach uses its beaches to welcome presidential primary contenders.

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Politics is a notoriously dirty business. A candidate’s every vote, comment, even their body language or wardrobe, is mercilessly scrutinized by his opponent using resources that vary from an Elks Lodge stump speech to a malicious YouTube posting. Often, would-be elected officials are sadly reduced to caricatures of themselves, and it requires tremendous grit to withstand the grueling process.

In anticipation of January’s South Carolina presidential primaries – the Republican vote took place on January 19th, and the Democratic poll happens on January 26th – the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce spun caricature and grit with a bit of mirth when it hired professional sandcastle sculptors to create larger-than-life countenances of the six GOP and three Democratic candidates outside the venues of their debates held in Myrtle Beach.

Chamber president Brad Dean said the idea was to make a decisive first impression: “We wanted our city to be more than the mere backdrop for the debates,” he said. “And, while our beaches and golf courses are major tourist attractions, we wanted to create a fresh focal point that would gain the attention of the media and other visitors, who are very pressed for time, in a fun way. So, we brought our 60 miles of beachfront to them.”

The chamber allocated $25,000 for both sculptures – much of that expense entailed paying for around-the-clock security (they learned their lesson when kids had climbed onto a previous mega-sculpture and caused 10 ft. of it to crumble, Dean said).

The chamber hired Sarasota, FL-based Team Sandtastic to create the sculptural signage. Mark Mason, the company’s owner, said his fondness for creating sandcastles on beaches in his native Ft. Lauderdale evolved into a “hobby gone crazy.”

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Though he sometimes finds his media in sand quarries near his jobsites, Mason was recycled sand left over from when the chamber arranged the building of the world’s largest sandcastle on the city’s beaches last year.

Team Sandtastic used 1,000 tons of sand and a five workers to create the Republican sculpture in four days, whereas the sculpture that featured the Democratic candidates entailed 400 tons of sand, a crew of four and five days’ work.

To create the caricatures, Mason selected photos that captured expressions he wished to convey in the sculptures. When developing a project, he said it’s most important to pack the sand densely and, when designing, to account for sand’s weight and shiftiness.

Predictably, the sculptures were a hit – Dean estimates 10,000 motorists and pedestrians have stopped to photograph them. He lamented the GOP sculpture was placed too close to the road outside the Myrtle Beach Convention Center (where the Republican debate was held on January 10) and traffic snarls frequently ensued. Though the sculpture caused no accidents, all parties ensured ample leeway when Team Sandtastic built the edifice to commemorate the Democratic debate, which took place on January 21 at the Palace Theater.

Dean praised the sculptures — “This was the best $25,000 the chamber has ever spent,” he said. “A couple of the candidates stopped and had their pictures taken with their likenesses. The sculptures attracted so much attention and uniquely promoted our region.”

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