Abe Waterman took home top honors at the Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Classic with his 21-foot-tall piece, “The Height of Stupidity.”
The towering sculpture depicts an AI‑powered robotic arm holding a skull toward the sky. Below it, Waterman carved human figures with their “heads buried in the sand,” he said — people “giving their energy to it all.”
“This is a pretty tall piece,” Waterman said. “I wasn’t sure it was going to stand, so there’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity. So often you start with bravery, and it ends up being stupidity.”
The three‑day contest, sponsored by the Hampton Beach Village District, wrapped up Saturday, June 20, and brought together a who’s who of master sand sculptors from around the world. Now in its 26th year, the event featured 10 artists, each working with 10 tons of sand to bring their visions to life. Along with the clock — and each other — they battled the elements: a torrential downpour on day one, high winds on day two, and scattered showers on the final day. Entries were judged on overall impact, technical skill, and degree of difficulty.
Dmitry Klimenko of Saint Petersburg, Russia, earned the $4,000 second‑place award, while Ilya Filimonstev of Moscow took third and $3,000.
Klimenko’s sculpture, titled “Spiritual Affinity,” shows two figures standing back‑to‑back, their garments and hair intertwined, with an owl perched between them.
“It’s all about relations and when the souls find each other, and they understand they are one,” he said. “They get some kind of wisdom, so I represented that with a little owl.”
Filimonstev’s piece, “The Birth of Venus,” draws inspiration from both Hampton Beach and the famous Botticelli painting of the same name.
Hampton beachgoers pick ‘Waiting for the Sunrise’ as favorite
Karlis Ile of Latvia said he arrived at Hampton Beach without a “clear idea” for his sculpture.
“I came here with a blank page and an open heart,” he said.
That openness paid off. His piece, “Waiting for the Sunrise,” earned him the $2,000 fourth‑place prize, the coveted People’s Choice Award voted on by the public, and the Governor’s Award selected by New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
The sculpture’s front shows the backs of a man and woman with a dog beside them as they watch the sun rise. Walking around the other side, you realize the dog is no longer with them in life, but remains present in spirit.
“It’s about time and relationships,” Ile said. “So, it’s beautiful to see one sunrise together, but it’s more important to have many sunrises together. Time with our loved ones is the most precious gift that we have in our lives…
“And as a reminder that time doesn’t wait, is that little dog. If you go from that side to the other, you will see that he’s dead already. He already had his last sunrise. So that is a reminder to enjoy the sunrises, sunsets, and the time we have.”
Ile said the idea came to him while sitting on Hampton Beach watching a young couple enjoy the shoreline and all it has to offer.
“I’m not so young anymore, and putting that all together with my life experience, I came up with this idea,” Ile said.
Sculpture sets new height record at Hampton Beach
Waterman not only won the $6,000 first‑place prize but also received the Sculptors’ Choice Award — an honor voted on by his fellow competitors.
The sculpture’s height was the tallest attempted at this contest, and organizer Greg Grady said it was a “Hampton Beach record.” Last year, Waterman created a 16-foot sculpture.
Waterman said he used scaffolding to reach the top and “worked my way down.”
“This was more of a display of shoveling than anything else,” Waterman joked, referring to the sheer effort required to build that much height.
Waterman said he didn’t have the full concept in mind when he started.
“I had the idea to go that tall, and then the other stuff came to be,” said Waterman, who even carved a miniature version of himself near the base, shown designing the sculpture.
He said the piece was inspired by the idea of “how humans use their brilliance to create all this technology that ends up either killing them or is used to kill each other.” He also added with a smile that he might have a “personal vendetta” against AI.
Waterman previously won the Hampton Beach contest in 2018 and 2021.
Hampton Beach sand art imitates life and fairy tales
Several sculptors said their inspiration came directly from the beach, the weather, or the moments unfolding around them.
Last year’s winner — and Hampton Beach favorite — Mélineige Beauregard said her sculpture, “Go with the Flow,” grew from the idea that “life is like a whirlpool.” Her intricate piece shows a woman rising from a swirling, circular form that looks part wave, part vortex.
“(Life) is full of currents, events that are always changing,” she said. “Life is always changing; that is the only fixed thing in life. The best thing you can do is to go with the flow and be open to change.”
Beauregard said she had to take her own advice when torrential downpours washed away much of her first day’s work.
“I lost like everything I did that day, so I had to go with the flow,” she said.
Carl Jara of Cleveland, Ohio, said he actually used that same rain to his advantage while creating “Ancestral Knowledge,” a sculpture featuring 14 figures.
“The weather worked in my favor,” he said, explaining that he used the stormy first day as his “pound‑up day” to pack and shape the forms.
For Jara, the piece carried deep personal meaning.
“In the middle, we have a blank space where I have walked out of,” he said. “On either side are my parents, and behind them are their parents, and behind them are their parents. I wanted each set of beings to become less and less and less recognizable.”
He said the idea came from his own family history.
“My grandparents died when I was very young, so I barely knew them,” he said. “My great‑grandparents were already gone, except for one who died when I was 3. I have no real knowledge of them at all.”
Now, with his own parents gone, he said even those memories are beginning to fade.
“It’s been rolling in my head, and I just wanted to torture myself by doing it,” he said.
Five‑time world champion Karen Fralich brought a dose of fun with “Puss and Bolts,” a playful spin on the fairy tale “Puss in Boots.”
“Puss and Boots is moving up in the world since his success in his fairy tale,” Fralich said. “He decided to expand his business, and he had created this machine that makes catnip, and on the back, you will see a reservoir with catnip in it. The dial says it’s pretty full, and he looks pretty pleased with himself. This piece was just inspired by kitty cats and steampunk.”
New sculptors impress at Hampton Beach
Newcomers this year included internationally acclaimed Latvian sculptor Agnese Rudzite and 28‑year‑old Joon Park — known to his million TikTok and Instagram followers as “JP” or the “JP Sandman.”
Rudzite’s piece, “Revival,” draws from the tragic myth of Medusa — a woman violated by Poseidon and then punished by being transformed into a Gorgon with venomous snakes for hair and a gaze that turned onlookers to stone.
“I wanted to give her a little bit like a second chance,” said Rudzite, who sculpted her breaking away from the evil snakes and transforming back to a “beautiful woman with flowers.”
Rudzite said she was thrilled to be in Hampton Beach for the first time.
“I’m super happy to be here because it’s a beautiful place, nature, ocean, and we are lucky to have sunshine, so I have been enjoying all these days,” Rudzite said.
Park, who lives in California, said he was also enjoying his first Hampton Beach experience — especially the chance “to carve with some of the best sand in the world.”
“My favorite thing is just the people,” Park said. “Everyone is awesome to hang out with, and there are so many people interested in what we are doing, and it’s just an awesome experience.”
Park’s sculpture, “Born to Be,” depicts a young boy — or prince — wearing a paper crown, positioned between two halves of the king he eventually becomes.
“He was born to be king,” Park said. “And I think that represents all of us in life. When we are born, we all have an idea of what we want to become.
For me, it was a sand sculptor, and I think each and every one of us are independently special and has our own talents. We are all born to be something special.”
You can still see the sand sculptures at Hampton Beach
All the sculptures, including the sponsor site in honor of America’s 250th, will remain on display through June 28 and will be lighted for nightly viewing.
The giant sponsor site pays tribute to key symbols and figures of American history, including the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the bald eagle, Martin Luther King Jr., a Statue‑of‑Liberty‑inspired mermaid, and Rosie the Riveter, representing the women who powered the nation’s factories and shipyards during World War II.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Patrick Cronin, Portsmouth Herald.
