PEI Buys NS Sand for Games
The red sand of P.E.I. may make for stunning postcards, but it doesn’t measure up when it comes to the exacting standards of international beach volleyball.
Organizers of the 2009 Canada Games say contractors had to buy 750 tonnes of sand from neighbouring Nova Scotia after they learned the Island’s fine sand is too easily compacted.
That means Island sand is great for building sandcastles, but it’s a potential safety hazard for leaping athletes requiring soft landings, says Robert Arsenault, facilities co-ordinator for the Games, which start Aug. 15.
“The particles have to be like ball bearings — they can’tcompact,” he said in an interview. “When you put pressure on them, they just move out of the way and your foot goes to the bottom of it.”
Arsenault said eight samples of sand were tested from across the Island, including some from the province’s famous beaches and inland gravel pits.
Simply put, none of it was “fluffy” enough.
“This was a very hard specification to meet,” Arsenault said, noting that Volleyball Canada follows a set of international rules that clearly define the size and shape of the coarse sand particles required for top-level competition.
Aside from the compaction factor, there is also an esthetic requirement. The sand on the court can’t be too sticky, either.
“Let’s say it’s August and you’re out there working up a sweat and you’re all wet and you dive in the sand, you don’t want to come up and have this fine dust stuck to you,” said Arsenault, explaining the finer points of the “suspended solids” test.
“You want larger sand particles, so you can brush it off.”
With the help of a consultant from southern Ontario, Arsenault’s team found the sand they were looking for in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
Unlike the warm, rusty tones of P.E.I.’s beaches, the Nova Scotia sand is decidedly brown and utterly useless for making sandcastles.
Arsenault said he didn’t know how much the sand cost because the contractor had to supply it as part of its bid to build a $3-million complex in Summerside that includes four beach volleyball courts, tennis courts, canteen and soccer field.
