Best Speck-tacle

"Team Sandtastic" sculpts masterpieces from sand.

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As a kid growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mark Mason loved playing in a sandbox. Now the married father of two runs a sand-sculpting business, Team Sandtastic, which builds some 75 sculptures a year for weddings, corporate functions and special events. Using nothing but wet sand and everyday tools -- shovels, trowels, kitchen spatulas, even melon ballers -- the group set a Guinness World Record for the tallest sand sculpture built by hand in under 100 hours, a 28-foot 71⁄4-inch carousel at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park in 1998. That project took five days, 240 tons of sand "and an incredible amount of physical energy," says Mason. Whether sculpting medieval castles or the Ten Commandments -- on giant sand tablets, of course -- it's just another day at the beach for this hardworking crew.

From Reader's Digest - May 2007