Removing background items/people

What is the best way to remove the backgound items/people from this pic and simply be left with a sand line and surf?

My best attempts so far with cloning/stamping still leave me with the 'stitched' look

I have:

PS7 (but no RAW importer)
Canon DPP (which has a good stamp tool but no layers function)
GIMP (but I've never used it LOL)

thanks,
dan

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I would clone and heal down to the pixel level. I thin k you would get goodresults

how about layering?

In DPP I can save my work as a TIFF file to then use it in PS7


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really tuff to fix because not much sand/water to clone from. heres my sad try:

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