How to build a perfect sandcastle 

Among the beach games, building a sand castle is certainly the most popular pastime. Some prefer to build very simple sand castles, just like when they were children, while from time to time there are those who decide to organize a competition for the most beautiful sand castle with the umbrella neighbors.

There are also professional artists and sculptors who know how to build wonderful sand castles. We too can improve the way we build sand castles to make a good impression when we go to the beach and above all to make our children happy. In fact, it will be great to try to build a perfect sand castle all together.

Here’s how to build a perfect sandcastle .

1. Choose a spot not too close to the shoreto build your sandcastle as if the tide comes in it could destroy all your painstaking work in a short time. Calculate the maximum point where waves usually hit the sand and keep a safe distance.
2. If you don’t have wet sanddirectly next to you – it all depends on your location – dig a hole deep enough that you have wet sand close at hand. For children it will be a lot of fun to dig in the sand to ‘find water’.
3. Also pay attention to the choice of sand to use. Choose sand that is as clean as possible . Put a handful in a bucket with water. If the water quickly turns cloudy, your sand may have too much clay. The result for your sandcastle will be better if you can use fine, clean sand that leaves the water clear.
4. How to make the sand more compactand workable? Wet the sand serves to bring together the numerous grains. In reality, very little water is needed to obtain a perfect blend. Set it this way: add water to the sand until you can easily form a ball with your hands without your fingers being too dirty and sticky.
5. If you want to create the foundation of your castle try to give your wet sand balla square or rectangular shape. You will need to make sure that the support base is solid, so compact it well by pressing hard with your hands. Moistening the bottom to compact the sand is very useful for having a solid base.
6. For the base of your castle, prepare a surface of well-leveled wet sandthat is wider than you think you will need it. Squeeze it both with your hands and by stepping on it with bare feet.
7. Start building a fairly tall pile of wet sand. Do not try to make the shape of your sand castle perfect immediately, the important thing is to make it compact. Create a small pylon of wet sand. You can always increase the amount of sand later.
8. Compact your wet sand pile to begin draining excess water. With your hands, walk around the pile on each side. Make sure that the sand is distributed evenly over the entire surface.
9. Now you can shape your castle tower however you like, using shovels and rakes and adding decorationssuch as shells, pebbles or flags. While shaping your castle, keep the sand moist as it will be easier to process and compact. You might need a spray of water.
10. You can also build the towers of your castle using the classic bucketand molds . Also in this case to get a good result you will need to use wet sand to compact well in the buckets or molds before turning them over.
11. Compact the sand layer by layer with your hands or with a shovel and turn molds and buckets upside downalways and only on a surface of wet and well leveled sand that you have prepared previously.
12. When all the towers are ready you can start creating the external walls of your castlealways using the wet sand to be modeled with your hands and with the shovels and to be placed layer by layer on the base.
13. If you want to create an arch,build two very close towers of the same height with the tips pointing inwards until they almost touch. With wet and well-shaped sand you can create the arch that unites them.
14. To finish all the detailsof your castle, proceed from top to bottom and use small tools to create the decorations. For example, you may need pencils, small rakes, straws or any other useful object.
15. Only if you are very reckless can you decide to create a moataround your castle. In this case you will have to proceed very slowly to remove the sand as you would otherwise risk ruining everything else. Finally, it is known that sand castles have a short lifespan and that many enjoy destroying them. So if you want to keep a memory of your creation, don’t forget to take some nice photos as soon as you finish it