Community Corner
Video: After More Than 20 Years, Rando's Commandos Take it Easy and Win Repeatedly
The team members typically decide what they will sculpt for the Sandcastle Competition at a party the night before, because while they toil over their sand sculptures, they make sure to have a good time.
After more than 20 years of competing in the U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition, Rando's Commandos will return Sunday, and will again defend their title.
Last year the team won Best Sculpture honors for "It's California's Fault," a gold brick-laden fault line swallowing the state's treasure and former Governor Schwarzenegger's Hummer below Debt Mountain.
"Bern Dog," Bern Dog Bernie Miller or Bern Dog the surf reporter, whatever you'd like to call him, is the team's official spokesman.
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"I dig all the sand, most of it. That's my only job," he said.
Team Captain Randy Putland and his wife, Monica, live steps from the beach, and after watching the competition take place in their beachfront yard for a few years, they decided to put a team together in 1988 and have been at it ever since.
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"Once a year our beaches get crowded and we just wanted to join in on the fun; that's all we got going. Get a little work in, you know?" Randy Putland said.
So how do they decide what will be sculpted in the sand?
Easy.
"We have a whole think tank of people" to figure out what the team will sculpt each year, Bern Dog said.
In other words, the team gets together at the Putlands' beach bungalow the night before the competition to party and brainstorm.
People bring the ideas that have been rattling around in their heads for a while, and the result is what the world sees in the sand the next day.
Team members have varied but the core group has stayed relatively consistent, said Monica Putland, who along with Elaine Rilatt act as "den mothers" every year, cooking, and taking care of team members and family visiting from out of town.
Being around this long, some team members have split off to form their own teams, which has started friendly rivalries and improved competition overall. One such example is Earl Heiskala, who helped the team with forms in its first years but now has a team with his three sons who have competed in the past under the name Kyle's Castles.
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