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Building the Perfect Sand Castle
Building a nice sand castle really isn’t all that hard. You just need to know how to prepare,
what tools to use, and how to build. Hilton Head Island has perfect sand for building sandcastles
because we have very at beaches. That’s why Hilton Head Island has sand castle competitions
every year.
In order to build a big and strong sand castle you have to know where to build it first. Start by
digging a large deep hole just far enough away from where high tide will come; that way the
waves will not crash on your castle. Don’t worry necessarily how wide the hole
is, but concentrate on how deep it is. You’ll want the hole to be deep enough
that a puddle of water is at the bottom with wet sand. Wet sand is the number
one ingredient in making a stong base for the sandcastle.
After digging the hole, choose the area near by you will build on and pat it
down hard so that is hard and at. After attening the surface, start scooping
with your hand from the hole and pouring the wet sand on the foundation.
Once the foundation is covered in wet sand, pat the wet sand down hard and
at like you did before (make sure and do this part quickly after pouring, wet
sand will start to “freeze/harden up” and will be harder to take shape when
the water sinks out of it). Now your foundation is very strong and you can start
to build up.
Continue to pour layer after layer of wet sand on top of your base and lightly attening it out; after layer two or three, stop patting the layers down with
your hand and simply let water and gravity do the rest for the rest of the layers.
Continue pouring and attening wet sand on your tower until it is the desired
height. This is how to build an effective “tower“. Build as many as you would like,
and remember dont build too high to where it will fall down. After the tower is
the desired height, you can whip out some hand tools we will go over later, or
wait and build some walls and staircases connecting the towers first before
you do your sculpting.
To build a wall connecting your towers, you will have to use a different technique than when you built your towers. Insted of plopping layer on top of layer
like the tower, when building a wall, you should make it using “bricks“. Simply
scoop a handfull of wet sand from your well, let the water drain a second or
two in your hands, then place the sand inbetween the towers. After you have
placed the sand on the ground, shape the brick with your palms or fingers. Start
with a bottom layer, then a second layer, then a third layer of bricks and build
up to your desired height.
In order to build stair cases, simply use the brick method again building
“away” from your wall. You will neaten up the stairs as well as the rest of the
castle later on with your tools.
The tools you will need are an actual shovel for
digging the hole, simple small sand castle bucket
for pouring wet sand, a paint scraper for attening
the wet sand, a butter knife for carving, tooth picks
for detailed designing, and a straw for blowing
away loose sand in hard to get areas. You may
think up of a new tool of your own, whatever
works for you!
Have fun!
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