Sandcastle construction - does this seem OTT?
Discussion
We live near the sea and I'm getting bored with buying plastic spades on a regular basis as they don't last. Even the metal ones end up bent pretty quickly. And then I spotted some of these in our local tool merchant: http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-round-point-mi...
And I think I have a trenching tool in the garage somewhere.
And I think I have a trenching tool in the garage somewhere.
What price a child's happiness? 
A few years back we bought one of those proper trenching shovels at Le Mans to divert the river that was running through out camp. Taken it every year since and has been employed on many an impromptu sand castle/moat building expedition.
As a nipper I always dreamed of rocking up at the beach with a full size bucket and shovel - you will be a hero.
A few years back we bought one of those proper trenching shovels at Le Mans to divert the river that was running through out camp. Taken it every year since and has been employed on many an impromptu sand castle/moat building expedition.
As a nipper I always dreamed of rocking up at the beach with a full size bucket and shovel - you will be a hero.
As above, you will be king of the beach!
When i was young my dad always brought a couple of shovels like that with us to the beach, I think in our time we must have diverted enough beach streams to solve California's drought crisis.
We also used to build the most awesome walls to stop the tide coming in
When i was young my dad always brought a couple of shovels like that with us to the beach, I think in our time we must have diverted enough beach streams to solve California's drought crisis.
We also used to build the most awesome walls to stop the tide coming in
Not big enough. We took a full sized gardening spade to the beack last year and it was f
king awesome. I made some massive earthworks and got a bking from the wife for trying to build an oxbow lake in one of the streams. My efforts completely damed the 6ft wide flow leaving the family further down the beach with nothing to play with.
As above: Hero.
king awesome. I made some massive earthworks and got a bking from the wife for trying to build an oxbow lake in one of the streams. My efforts completely damed the 6ft wide flow leaving the family further down the beach with nothing to play with. As above: Hero.
Proper tools are definitely warranted on any beach civil engineering project. Plastic spades are for amateurs. When I was little my dad went to my nans and dug out his 1950's spec metal beach spades which were immense- "they don't make 'em like the used to".
The comments above about toes are very important.
Sadly those spades have been retired to decorating the ceiling of my parents "vintage" log cabin so I'll be making a trip to screwfix when Lufbramatt Jr. want to recreate the Somme on Camber sands in a few years time.
The comments above about toes are very important.
Sadly those spades have been retired to decorating the ceiling of my parents "vintage" log cabin so I'll be making a trip to screwfix when Lufbramatt Jr. want to recreate the Somme on Camber sands in a few years time.
I'm sitting on a campsite on the coast near Bordeaux reading this thread, and my OH wanted to know why I was giggling so much (having read the JCB comment above)...it was at that point I had to come clean and explain that, despite the children being at home, I had in fact put a trenching tool in the back of the car so I could build man-sized sandcastles on the beach at some point over the holiday!
PS apparently she still loves me!!!
PS apparently she still loves me!!!
Edited by cochapman on Monday 17th August 23:14
8Ace said:
Not big enough. We took a full sized gardening spade to the beack last year and it was fking awesome. I made some massive earthworks and got a bking from the wife for trying to build an oxbow lake in one of the streams. My efforts completely damed the 6ft wide flow leaving the family further down the beach with nothing to play with.
As above: Hero.
Pretty similar tale here. I however managed to not only build the dam so it was about 2' deep but then it breached and diverted the stream across part of the beach that was previously dry and full of people sitting down on the nice dry sand...king awesome. I made some massive earthworks and got a bking from the wife for trying to build an oxbow lake in one of the streams. My efforts completely damed the 6ft wide flow leaving the family further down the beach with nothing to play with. As above: Hero.
My 7-year old thought it was far more impressive than my Mrs did & he tells everyone "My dad flooded the beach when we were on holiday and everyone was really cross including Mum."
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