Keith Hartwell: Art of the Dig
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- Опубликовано: 30 июл 2024
- Trail builders are a rare breed - and a fascinating one. Trek into the coastal canyons of Southern California where resident dirt sculpter Keith Hartwell and his contemporaries meticulously craft magnificent mounds of soil to ride small bicycles on.
Edited by: Charlie Crumlish 
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Way to go Keith! Keeping the socal dirt jump scene alive.
Trail builders are a rare breed.
Keith is the man. That whip on the distance set was dialed & savage. Love the time lapse digging clips - amazing the time & dedication invested. Respect.
We found that grassy little valley in 1997, after my first ACL reconstruction because our other spots in town became too known and I wanted to build a spot to roll around by myself. The perfect butter cookie dirt was a nice change to all the nearby clay on the graded lots and ridges. It actually was an old moto hill-climb that Cameron Steele and Trigger Gumm built in the 80’s across the creek. We broke ground and only my buddy Al and I dug and rode for a few months without telling a soul. I built 19 tabletops and 22 rollers😅 and Al built a six-pack down the middle. Chris Ackerman RIP “Metal Mulisha” found us digging one day and asked how we got a bobcat down there. Al immediately replied, “He’s the bobcat!” It was appropriate because a family of bobcats lived near the big bush behind the third jump after roll in. They would hang out and play in the grass when we dug everyday. There were only three jumps then before the berm. The entire high school began to show up and blew the place out, cops and all. The city concrete barricaded the whole access road off. We always were stealth and rode there from Al’s house over the ridge, never parking within miles. There was no skatepark. It became a bust and we abandoned it. I moved out of state. In later years I guess a bike magazine took up shop nearby and it was rejuvenated, and rediscovered-although the lines and rhythm never really changed. The name somehow did. I guess because the “grown up” groms didn’t know our clandestine story. It will always be “Bobcat” or “Dog Pound” and it hasn’t been a secret for decades, so whatever, we didn’t publish videos and landmarks, so nobody can say sh!t. Acquaintances grew weed out there way before we even broke ground, old nursery pots left behind, maybe that’s why they started having a contest on April 20th. We chose that place exactly in between private property and the State Park so we knew it couldn’t ever be developed, and I’m grateful to see it still alive after almost 30 years. I can’t believe how big the jumps have become, it’s way gnarlier than what we started. We still have a bunch of cardboard camera kodak photos of those first several months when nobody knew about it. Keith, you saw a few… I’ll have to look for the petrified sabertooth tiger fang I found there. The only frames I ever rode there was my S&M Dirtbike, Holmes, and my favorite Kris Bennett🤘😎🤙
I miss making dirt jumps in random areas we'd stumble upon when I was a kid. Lugging around shovels and gallons of water just searching for some dirt lol
Please do another one of these. So good ❤
Rad. Nice to see some good shaping.
thank you for everything u do for bmx s&m ,,, thank u for all trail builders an spot makers for pushing the limits of mother nature an mankind 🎉❤
Amazing work!
a work of art
A true labor of love. The older I get the more inspired I get to build. Recently I encountered a rock that was too big to move out of a transition, so I dug a deep pit next to it and rolled the rock into it. It was fun and I got some bonus dirt out of it.
Keith’s art is awesome. Thanks for supporting it.
These trails are works of art and incredible to witness in person. Thank you for all the hard work!
We need one staring mark Potoczny !
this was very relaxing
Thats some technical shit. looks like a work of art when hes done.
Love this. Keep it coming!
Smooth 🤘🏻
That was sick !
The best dirt rider!!!
more dig!!
Keith rules!
Love it
Dirt gives a buzz that a ramp can never achieve
wish riding was fun as digging.
Instant clasic !
This the fucking best!
legend has it, his pants got so tight they burst into shants
We want to see more about dig 🤙
Brakeless and shirtless trail riding! 😮
I remember when Dylan Stark tried to claim these trails as his own.
I love watching it, but I personally am NOT a ramps and jumps person, so this is not at all my thing. Still super awesome!
I love building trails. Need more people to move dirt!! Everyone just wants to know where the spots are but nobody wants to ever grab a damn shovel and build one. People are mad lazy these days.
That SpongeBob reverence 😅
I that really all it is? Water the dirt then pile it up? No way
wow