In my poor opinion, the sky is taking the eyes completely and not the sand, it's a FANTASTIC photo... but for sand theme I (my opinion) crop a little bit the sky!

The goals states "shots taken at the beach. It could be a landscape of a lonely stretch of empty beach, a close up of the sand or a shot of a busy one that is jam packed with people." This doesn't stated that the sand must be the focus.... it mandates what kind of "scene" it must be. This means that SAND must be visible and it be a sandy beach.

I like that everything in the picture is so round and looking really soft. Awesome photo

The dark & light....intense contrast of colors..absolutely stunning.

Ok, ok... it makes me feel squeezed... nice capture, good composition! GL

Cool idea and good execution. Good luck author.