PORT ANGELES — For the past decade, the sand sculpture contest in Port Angeles has drawn some of the best carvers in the world.

Beginning next year, it will become a select qualifier for the world championships in Federal Way.

A new tradition in the art of sand sculpting will begin in September 2010, when Federal Way plays host to the top sculptors in the world.

Doc Reiss of Port Angeles, who heads the North American Masters Invitational at Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles on the fourth weekend of July, is an organizer of the world championships.

The Port Angeles contest is part of the Arts in Action festival, which is organized by Nor’wester Rotary.

Port Angeles joins Vancouver, British Columbia; Port Aransas, Texas; Hampton Beach, N.H.; Fort Meyers, Fla., and to-be-determined contests in Europe and Asia as a qualifier for world championships. The winners of each qualifier get automatic bids to Federal Way.

The second- and third-place finishers in each qualifier will enter a pool of contenders that will be selected as space permits.

“It’s a great thing for Port Angeles,” Reiss said.

The top sand sculptors in North America have traditionally traveled from one competition to the next, adapting themselves to each contest.

“It was all these satellites, and nothing ever happened,” Reiss said.

Open world championships were held in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia, for 19 years but fizzled out this year.

The invitation-only world championships in Federal Way will mark the first time that a universal standard has been adopted for sand sculpting.

“A lot of the changes are modeled after Port Angeles,” Reiss said.

Suzanne Altamare, wife of the late Marc Altamare, who was one of the first to make a living at sand sculpting, called Reiss several months ago from Florida and asked if he knew of any other cities that might want to host the world championships.

Reiss called his brother-in-law, who has ties in Federal Way, and chose the city of nearly 90,000 in south King County.

Reiss liked Federal Way because it’s located between population centers of Seattle and Tacoma, near Sea-Tac airport and bills itself as a city that speaks 125 languages.

That international flavor was a perfect fit for a sand sculpting competition that will draw sculptors from China, Korea, Latvia and Switzerland.

Reiss won over the Federal Way City Council with a pitch that included images of elaborate sand sculptures. The city approved the world championships on Sept. 15.

“The budget on this is completely different than anything we’ve ever dealt with here,” Reiss said.

“Port Angeles is nice. This one that we do here is literally one of the top five in North America, and it’s because of what we do and the way that we do it that [master sculptor] Charlie [Beaulieu] and I were approached.”

The world championships will pay travel and entertainment expenses for at least 60 competitors, and rent a tent big enough to fit 130 people.

Since the contest is paying for each master sculptor to attend, organizers have set limits of 30 solo sculptors, eight doubles and six teams.

“For what we have just for travel, I could put on three of our shows here,” Reiss said.

“We’re figuring right now that by the time this whole thing rolls together, it’s about 10 times the size and 10 times the cost of what we do here.”

The estimated budget for the world championships is more than $400,000.

“It’s big,” Reiss said. “It’s kind of like going from doing a birthday party to doing an inauguration of some kind.”

Port Angeles is the last contest for which you can qualify for the world competition.

“This is a monumental occasion,” said Beaulieu, of Kingston.

“This competition has never been held in the United States before. And it will bring an experience to the Seattle area that is unique. Sand sculpting takes the conditioning of an athlete, the imagination of an artist and the finesse of a delicate hand.”

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.