Growing up in New England, Rick Mungeam spent a lot of time on the beaches of Cape Cod. As a teenager the embers of his now successful professional sand sculpting company might be glimpsed in the life-size Porsche he created in 1974 on Martha’s Vineyard, Ma. Rick’s passion for design and his enjoyment of technical drawing drove him, as a young man, to pursue a career in architecture. For almost 40 years, Rick Mungeam as RGM Design, created custom upper-end homes in many resort communities and exotic locations such as Lake Tahoe, Hawaii, Whidbey Island, WA., Tiburon and Napa, CA., and numerous projects in Colorado ski towns.

The economic changes that were experienced in 2008 caused the profession of architecture to be rendered nearly extinct. Selling their home in Colorado, Rick and his wife, Capri, set out on a traveling adventure. Their quest for warmer weather brought them to the beaches of South Padre Island, TX, where Rick first met Master Sand Sculptor Andy Hancock. Hancock’s easy instructive techniques fanned Rick’s forgotten ember for sand sculpting into a small spark. As they continued to travel, Rick spent much of his beach time playing in the sand, honing his newly acquired sand sculpting skills. One evening after creating what has now become known as “HeartCastle” on GraytonBeach (Florida Panhandle), a wedding party asked if they might incorporate the castle into their ceremony and wedding photos. That same night a number of families asked to use the castle as a backdrop for their beach family portraits. The answer was “yes”, however these events caused the entrepreneurial minded Mungeam to begin considering the prospect of becoming a professional sand sculptor, and the flickering spark became a flame.

Since that fateful day on Grayton Beach, (Florida Panhandle), Beach Sand Sculptures has become a thriving business offering a variety of professional sand sculpting services; sandcastle lessons to corporate team building events, marriage proposals and wedding sand sculptures, table- top entertaining performance art pieces that draw crowds to multi-ton projects off the beach, indoors and out of doors.

The Mungeam’s Beach Sand Sculptures has reached a record high not only in business contacts and awareness of the benefits and thrills of sand sculptures but also in social media. The BeachSandSculptures.com facebook fan page recently received their 1,200 “Like” in less than 9 months and Tripadvisor reviews have placed them as the #8 Attraction in Destin (Panhandle of Florida) in the same 9 month span.At first Rick was a bit disappointed by the idea of creating real architecture for nearly 40 years to seemingly only build castle in the sand. A question from his wife caused a paradigm shift in his mind. She asked, “Could it be that you were an architect for 37 years SO THAT you could be a really great sand sculptor”?

Now Mungeam embraces his new career by telling people as he looks down to his bare feet in the sand, “I changed my work shoes, and these are a lot more comfortable”.

Rick Mungeam, architect turned professional sand sculptor can be reached

@ 303-681-2631 on facebook, Twitter and

www.BeachSandSculptures.com