Sand castle reality show being filmed at New River Beach

Just when you thought there was a reality television show for everything, another pops up.

How about one documenting the battle for the title of sand-sculpting champion?

And of course you'd film it at New River Beach, where contestants not only battle each other, they battle the unforgiving tides of the Bay of Fundy.

Race Against the Tide is a 10-part series hosted by actor and comedian Shaun Majumder. It will be broadcast in Canada next year on CBC and the CBC Gem streaming service.

The series features 10 teams of two "world-class, highly skilled sand sculptors," according to a press release from the creators.

In each half-hour episode, the teams will be evaluated by judges who will eliminate one team each week.

"Not only are these best-in-show duos competing against each other, they are competing against Mother Nature's unstoppable ticking clock and the world's highest tide at New Brunswick's iconic and beautiful Bay of Fundy," states the release.

"The stakes have never been higher in the world of sand sculpting as the competitors' creations no matter how impressive are all destined to be washed away the same day by the tide."

The executive producer of marblemedia said the setting was perfect for such a battle.

"As the highest tide in the world, we couldn't think of a better place to produce this series than the Bay of Fundy," said Matt Hornburg.

"We have brought the best in class from around the world to create more twists on the ever-fascinating spectacle of sand sculpting," he said.

The series includes some of the top sand sculptors from across North America.

Annual New River Beach competition

It's certainly come a long way from the earliest days of sand sculpting at New River Beach, said Lenora Lomax, who has only missed one of the annual competitions since the inaugural edition in 1985.

"The first one was the long weekend in August and it was the hottest weekend that whole summer," she recalls. "It was a beautiful weekend."

Genesis of the competition

Foster Hammond was the superintendent of the park in 1985. He was sitting around with two other employees in the summer of 1985 when someone mentioned a sand-sculpting competition at Parlee Beach.

They agreed that it might help attract more people to the park, but they worried there might not be enough people at the first one to make it very exciting.

So the idea was to pair it with a Saint John company's family picnic that was expected to draw about 1,500 people.

"At least then we could guarantee 1,500 people would be there," said Hammond.

In fact, 3,500 people were on hand for that first one and it just kept growing.

Hammond said as many as 8,000 people have attended the event.

He said the calibre of the sculptures has always impressed him right from the beginning.

"There are always one or two that would blow everyone away."

And over the last 35 years, the list of subjects has been extensive, he said.

"You name it, it was on the sand," said Hammond.

He's not surprised that the people behind the reality show would pick New River Beach. He said it's perfect.

"Just because of the size of the beach. The beach is very broad and it has a very shallow incline. That's very important. And when the tide goes out, it's almost a quarter of a mile from the bluff down to the low tide mark."

That gives a lot of area for sculptors to work on their creations.

Hammond said timing is very important. The idea is to start as soon as the tide goes out because when it comes back in, there's no stopping it.

As the creators of the series pointed out, all sculptures are "destined to be washed away the same day by the tide."