This year's field of 50, drawn from eight states, filled up the first week of February, according to Dolph Pulliam, a former Drake basketball star and the contest's master of ceremonies.
The wider surfing community first became aware of the tensions at the 2007 Pipeline Masters contest, when Brazil's Neco Padaratz became involved in a fight with North Shore regular Sunny Garcia.
Organizers of Belmar's contest, in fact, invite master sand sculptors to give tips and classes for prospective contestants.
Yet, by imputing continued colonial aspirations to Britain, Mr. Mugabe has been able to harness Africa's deep-rooted resentment of foreign dominance, casting his political survival as part of the elemental contest between slave and master, rather than as one more skirmish in the war of democracy versus tyranny portrayed by his enemies.
The people of Wisconsin reinvigorated their base to contest hometown hero Paul Ryan, master of imaginary numbers, for the sake of the entire realm.
The restaurant-themed contest series "Top Chef Masters" has gone in the opposite direction, downsizing for its third season, which begins Wednesday night on Bravo.
Up to 60 of the UK's top climbers are expected to contest the Scottish Mixed Masters competition at the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven.
And with them came a new kind of contest that brought the masters of the 80s together with kids who hadn't yet been born the first time around.
Both men were contesting their first Masters final, but both had previously experienced snooker's biggest stage after being crowned world champions; Murphy in 2005 and Robertson in 2010.
In China, Ms. Hadid placed first in a contest to draw up a master plan for an arts complex in Changsha, and is one of three finalists in the competition to design the new National Art Museum of China.
