'It is a ridiculously short amount of time.' The world's best sand artists sculpt masterpieces in just 6 hours

In 1897 artist Philip McCord created a stirring sand sculpture featuring a drowned mother and her baby alongside the boardwalk in Atlantic City. As word spread, more artists showed up to create bigger and better sculptures for tips from tourists who passed by.

Now beach towns around the world host amateur competitions. Several dozen host international sand sculpting artists who compete for fame and prize money.

But, here in Canada, New Brunswick's New River Beach on the Bay of Fundy is home to the toughest sand sculpting competition in the world. 

In CBC's Ride Against the Tide, sculptors have to complete their pieces before the biggest tides in the world wash them away.

"A typical professional sand sculpting contest is about 24 to 30 hours, over 3 or 4 days," explains judge Karen Fralich, who is a five-time world sand sculpting champion. "Here, the sculptors have just six hours to build up and finish their pieces. [It is] a ridiculously short amount of time to create their masterpieces."

"Being creative is hard enough. Trying to do it under the pressure of a tide limit is a whole other level. No other contests in the world do that," says judge Rusty Croft, a seasoned sand sculptor who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the tallest sand castle.

At New River Beach the sand has been eroded and rolled by the tides for eons, making it round, difficult to stack and unpredictable to carve. And then, there's the weather. "A hot, dry, sunny, windy day can be just as bad or worse than a rain storm. Luckily for us, we get it all in New Brunswick," says Croft.

For the last three summers, sand artists have had to bring their A-game to the beach. "Artistic talent is only one piece of the puzzle," explains Fralich. "A strong background in physical fitness, math, architecture, landscaping, pottery, construction, industrial design and graphic arts are also very beneficial skills."

All of these skills were present in one of her favourite pieces from Season Two of Race Against the Tide. Masters of architecture, artists Bouké Atema and Jeroen Advocaat, built a spectacular nearly three-metre tall city of skyscrapers which leaned to one side.

"Passion is number one," says Croft. "Sand is heavy, difficult to manage and unpredictable to carve. If you're not passionate about it, you're not gonna create anything but a mess."

"The tide calls the shot here. So, I gotta move faster than I ever moved. There's nothing in the world that I want more than this golden bucket," said artist Guy-Olivier Deveau, as he and his partner Fred Dobbs raced to complete their final sculpture, a fiddlehead fern breaking through concrete in Season Two. 

"Fred and Guy's final piece was a real showstopper!" remembers Croft. Consequently, the team did win $10,000 in prize money.

Who will take the golden bucket this season? Watch the third season of Race Against the Tide, debuting Sunday, July 16 at 8:30 p.m. on CBC and CBC Gem.