ALAMEDA — Malyka Chop brought his wheelbarrow to the beach Saturday to haul wet sand left by the low tide a few feet uphill to construct the most formidable castle in Crown Memorial State Beach.

But Chop’s idea soon backfired as the wet sand quickly dried up in the morning sun. He settled with large buckets instead and built a castle complex encircled with bucket-shaped towers.

“This was a bust,” said Chop — who runs a preschool in Alameda and had students and parents on his team — as he looked at his wheelbarrow. “We built with strong, wet sand around the edges and filled the insides with weak sand.”

Chop was one of more than 400 participants who built sand castles and sculptures in the Saturday competition. Eighty-nine teams competed, with 48 signing up to build sculptures and 41 for castles.

The 52nd Annual Sand Castle and Sculpture Contest is hosted by the City of Alameda’s Recreation and Parks Department in partnership with Bayview Women’s Club and the East Bay Regional Park District, according to Alameda’s Recreation Supervisor Shawn Smith.

“There’s not many of these kinds of events in the United States,” said Smith. “It’s an unique thing. It’s a very Alameda thing. It’s very special that we have community events like this.”

Most tools, like buckets, shovels, spatulas and wheelbarrows, are allowed. The competition allows materials like shells, kelp and flowers found on the beach as accessories but forbids outside materials to be brought in.

On the castle side of the beach, size was largely the name of the game, with teams either digging under to build moats and ramparts or building up to construct large towers and pyramids.

One team incorporated both size and natural materials found on the beach. The Arjo family, who live in Alameda and have participated in the competition for 18 years, built a large step pyramid with kelp and sea lettuce covering every step — and a skull-faced gate in the front made of seashells.

The castle won first place in the category for adults aged 13 and over — and also took the special “Best in Show” award. The structures were judged on a point scale up to 100, with 30 allotted to design and details each, and 20 each to neatness and technique.

“Our strategy is to collect vegetables and shells from the beach first, build a huge pile and then cover it all,” said Thais Arjo.

On the sculpture end, the artwork was more delicate and precise, as teams built anchors, sharks, an Egyptian sarcophagus and the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, among others.

Bill Urban, the ringleader of the 9-person team “Urban Gorillas” who built a large anchor sculpture, has been participating for 25 years. While proud of the anchor, Urban said he’s done better and put more effort in past projects; in certain years, Urban and his team would practice on the beach a week in advance.

“Anchor is tied with Alameda’s naval history,” said Urban, who lives in East Oakland. “Anything to do with water gets to the top of our list of subject matter.”

Serial competitors, like Arjo, said that Alameda’s competition was an unique Bay Area tradition that can’t be replicated in other beaches.

“The beaches in San Francisco will likely be too cold for competitions like this,” said Arjo. “It’s warmer here. This is an Alameda-only tradition.”