From WVEC television news: "There’ll be a new twist at this year’s Neptune Festival sandcastle building championships. A team is going for a Guiness world record.

At the Va. Beach Oceanfront, work began Wednesday (September 20th) to turn a 27-foot tall pile of sand into the world’s largest sandcastle.

The team of builders from Florida will go for the record. It’s headed by Mark Mason, a professional sandcastle builder on Team Sandtastic. (Take a look at some of their work at Team Sandcastic.Com. The photos are incredible!)

"It's the bucket that we're actually making large out of plywood. Going to put it right on top. So we're going to add 10 or 12 feet to what you see and then start working our elements, which will be a medieval castle, a Neptune and mermaids and seahorses," he explained.

The team hopes to have the work completed by next Tuesday, in time for the North American Sandcastle Building Championships. 300 teams are expected to compete."