You could also use a kid's beach sand shovel, but work carefully and slowly so you don't damage the laterals. When they are all clear, you can fold them up and pull them out and then just dump the sand.

It's really important to use only filter sand, which is cheap enough--I've seen it as high as $12/50lb and as low as $5/50lb. But set up right and you never need to replace it--I'm on year 7, Poconos is on year 12, 13 or 14 (I forgot which, Al).

Or you can use the sand alternatives like Zeolite--they are expensive and you have to figure out how much is the equiv of 50lbs because it's much lighter for the volume.

Personally, I don't see the point--a little DE in the filter gives the same super-clear water and $10 of DE will last you several seasons, but some people swear by it.