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Amateur Architects Hit Coney Island For 2017 Sand Sculpting Contest

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some 60 new structures are going up in Brooklyn this weekend without permits, but nobody's complaining.

Why? The 27th annual Coney Island Sand Sculpting Contest is hitting the beaches of Brooklyn Saturday.

"And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually," the great Jimi Hendrix once wrote. But until that happens, Zana Samelia and family from Brooklyn are among the 60 or so people competing for prizes of up to $500.

"It's all in the hand, in the finger," she tells WCBS 880's Mike Sugerman.

Samelia says she's making an alligator this year, but it probably wouldn't have beaten last year's winner.

"It was like, a Harry Potter style castle," Samelia said. "It was eight feet tall."

Jodi Querbach of Brooklyn Community Services is in charge of the contest that brings people from all over the world.

You could say it's on their bucket list -- as long as that bucket is full of sand.

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