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Every memorial day weekend for the past 50 years, misfits of all types —  junkyard artists, compulsive tinkerers, garage engineers — have gathered in Humboldt County, California for a competition unlike any other.

The Grand Kinetic Championship is a three day, 50-mile “human-powered sculpture race.” As you can see, kinetic scultpures come in many shapes and sizes.

But no matter how extravagent, they must also be rugged.  The course includes numerous obstacles: rutted out dirt roads, massive sand dunes, and even water crossings. That’s right: kinetic scultpures float!

And so last year, a small group of friends from the Bay Area decided to form a team — the first new entrant in years.

We called ourselves “The Sardine Dream.”

Over the course of three months we:

• Purchased an Italian made surrey bike
• Altered the bike’s drivetrain for gearing
• Created a floating chasis out of 4 rain barrels
  
• Paper mached team mascot “Paulina Delfina”
• Designed fish-head costumes for team
  
• Spent countless hours in the hardware store
• Screen printed shirts (obviously)

On May 26th, we loaded “The Tin” into a u-haul, and made our way six hours up the coast to Humbolt.

Come race weekend we pedaled, paddled, and pulled our way through the entire course.

This year, we’ve got something even bigger planned.

This year. We’re going to build a brand new sculpture from the gound up. A “Tin 2.0” for ourselves and all new fish-friends who may wish to join us.

If this sounds like your kind of fun, we want your help. Please email us and we’ll be in touch. Join Us
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