John Gowdy & Laura Cimador Gowdy

This husband and wife team is ready to wow you!

Close up headshot of a man smiling at the camera. He is wearing a hat and his face is covered in sand.

About John Gowdy

John Gowdy is a professional sand and marble sculptor. John’s hometown is Atlantic City, NJ, where he served as a Fire Captain of The Atlantic City Fire Department for 27 years. After retiring in 2007, he met his wife and teammate Laura Cimador at a sand sculpting event in Jesolo, Italy, near Venice. They married in 2011 and have been an international sand-sculpting team ever since.

Together, they have won many master events and have placed in the top three places here at Texas SandFest in the past five years.

They have carved sand for many clients such as The White House Commission of Remembrance, on the beaches of Normandy, France in memory of the D-Day landings and Pope Francesco at Saint Peter’s Cathedral in The Vatican, to name a few.

Before meeting Laura, John has competed here at SandFest as a solo sculptor since 1999!

He says, “Over the years I have witnessed this event growing from a few solo sculptors to what you see here now. It’s just unbelievable! I really enjoy coming back here year after year to the wonderful hospitality offered by the management, the excellent beach sand quality, and simply put, the hometown feeling I get from everyone here in Port A!"

A blonde woman in a hat, cut off plaid shirt, and black tank top holds both hands up with a big smile to the camera.

About Laura Cimador Gowdy

Laura Cimador Gowdy comes from Castelfranco Veneto, Italy. She is an elementary school teacher.

Laura and her husband John Gowdy have teamed up in the competitive world of professional sculpture since 2007. They have won many awards as a two-person team in world-class sand events in Texas Sandfest, Cervia (Italy), and Fort Myers Beach (FL). In 2011, they won the nationally-televised "Sand Wars" professional sand-sculpting competition in Siesta Key, Florida.

On April 18, 2018, Laura and John had the honor of being invited to the Vatican, Rome to personally meet Pope Francis and donate to him a sand sculpture which was carved inside Saint Peter’s Basilica.

In 2020, John and Laura participated in a reality show called "Race Against The Tide" in New Brunswick, Canada.

A couple wearing sun hats poses together in front of a sand sculpture showing two faces facing each other, one with a pointy top and one with a swirly top.

A couple hugging each other both with hats on, leaning against a sand sculpture

A couple in long-sleeve white shirts crouches next to a large sand sculpture depicting small dwarves on top of a wood sculpture, mining away.

A large sand sculpture depicting an ark full of dogs and a large face looking worried.

Sand sculpture depicting a psychiatrist sitting in a chair on the left. To his right is a peanut with a face laying on a couch. In between them is a table of sand and a scroll that says, "I gotta tell you, Doc. I just feel like a nut!"