Sand castle builders young and old gathered at the Manhattan Beach Pier on Sunday morning to thrill and delight with their sand creations at the 56th Annual Sand Castle Design Contest.

The contest, which is part of the International Surf Festival, is produced by the Manhattan Beach Department of Parks and Recreation and was sponsored this year by DigMB,

Prizes for this year's competition were generously donated by Look! Optometry, Manhattan Beach Creamery, pages: a bookstore, Simmzy's Restaurant Group, and Pitfire Artisan Pizza.

This year's creations included a gothic skull-themed castle, a "Rio" dog, a race car, a whale, an octopus, a hippo, and a "hole to China."

Sand castle builders included families, friends, tiny tots, and serious sculptors who brought fine-tuning instruments for sand castle details. City Councilmember Wayne Powell joined in the fun, as did a group of Manhattan Beach mothers and daughters who volunteer with the National Charities League.

The grand prizewinner for a multi-age group creation was "Castle Rimmer" created by Team Rimmer.