Beginning on the early morning of July 15, Alan Matsumoto and his friends will start their creative adventure in making a “larger than life” sand sculpture for the 33rd annual Virginia Lake Festival. Starting with several tons of sand…Matsumoto and his fellow sculptures begin the process of making a creation from the ground up. It is fascinating to watch them work and attempt to figure out exactly what the ending result will be. He may give some helpful hints along the way…

Matsumoto served as a structural engineer in Vancouver, Canada for 19 years and has been professionally sandsculpting fulltime now for 21 years. He currently lives in Roanoke, VA.

He shared the World Champion Sandsculpting title with his teammates for seven years straight, held a Guiness World Record in sandsculpting, and has appeared in various media including National Geographic magazine and on the NBC Today Show. Matsumoto has also been the National Snowsculpting Champion of Canada and twice Champion of Province of British Columbia.

His professional sandsculptures have been seen in more than 21 State Fairs and more County Fairs, malls, and festivals from Florida to Alaska and Hawaii. He has created sand sculptures in other countries and cities that include Perth, Melbourne, Sydney Australia, Luliang, Sanya China, Johannesburg South Africa, Venice Italy, Aruba, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Quebec City. Most recently he was called to carve snow for the NBC Today Show during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In the one photo…an archaeologist is trying to fit the skull onto THE TAIL tip of another skeleton! He states, “I always try to put a bit of a twist into my sculptures if I can–otherwise what fun is there in just making sandcastles all day?”

The other photo is a replica of a “dreaming castle” that he created at the Minnesota State Fair recently.

Be sure to stop by and check out his work starting Thursday morning, July 15 and stop by often to check on his progress until he finishes up the project on Saturday, July 17, around noon