Beach Treasures and Treasure Beaches

Bill Pavlacka is “The Sandcastle Man.”  Greg and I were lucky enough to run across Bill and witness his amazing handiwork on the wide, white sand beach in front of the historic Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California.

The Sand Castle Man -Bill Pavlacka- in front of The Hotel Del Coronado (Photo ©Jody Diehl)

This awesome sand castle had been built the day before we met “Billy Pav” and I believe he said it had taken him 5 or 6 hours to create this sandy masterpiece.  He was touching up his artwork and putting in place the little tree-like sculptures around the base of the sand castle while we were watching.  Actually, lots of people were admiring this impressive sand sculpture while he continued his work and chatted away, answering questions.  People continually stopped by to smile, take pictures and meet the good-natured Sand Castle Man.

Bill Pavlacka began building his sandy creations nearly 30 ago, when his children were very small.  Now, he’ll even teach you how to build sand sculptures!  Bill told me that if you email him with a request, he would be happy to set up a sand castle building class on the beach. Notice his construction tools of choice: plastic buckets and simple shovels and trowels. He also used a lot of water on this windy, warm December day!

The Sand Castle Man – Bill Pavlacka – at The Hotel Del Coronado (Photo ©Jody Diehl)

You’ll want to check out The Sandcastle Man‘s photo gallery on his website. While there you can also see a time lapse movie of the building of a sand sculpture and a documentary of his work. It’s all fun stuff!

You just never know what you’ll find at the beach, even in December!