Ben Hittle is the dude. His riding is ridiculous. He’s hilarious and chill at the same time so he’s a perfect candidate for any road trip. And a lot of people have been talking about him since seeing The Come Up’s Texas Trip video, so I figured an interview was in order. Read on:

What is your name, where are you from and how did you get into riding?

Benjamin John Hittle, I’m from Severna Park, Maryland and now I live in Baltimore. When I was a small child I used to rollerblade and then I realized it sucked so I started riding bikes when I was about 11. I raced for almost a year before I built some wooden ramps and liked that better.

What is your deal anyway?

What does that even mean?

How was the Texas trip? Explain your fascination with the dog “Dumpster”.

It was sweet. It stunk commutining 45 minutes everyday to ride but it was nice having that pool right down the road. Overall it was awesome though, Austin is so good. Dumpster is a crazy dog that lived at the house we were staying at and he ruled. He was so hyper and would chase shadows and bark loud as shit. If you made shadow puppets on the walls it would run into them. Keith hated him. One night we made shadows above Keith’s bed while he was sleeping and when Dumper jumped on him, Keith tried to strangle him.

As an animal lover, are you now offended by Keith’s animal-beating existence? Do you think PETA should protest outside Keith’s house? I definitely do.

I already called them and they are hunting Keith down as we speak.

How much do you like Whole Foods? Actually what are your favorite restaurants and other eat spots in general?

Whole Foods in general isn’t that great because its really expensive, but the one in Austin was amazing. It was huge and had a nice patio with a pond and birds and nice people. As for eat spots, I’ve been really into Indian food lately and have been going to a place called Mughal Garden every weekend. One World Cafe in Baltimore is also good. If you’re on the road Panera Bread or Taco Bell are my favorites, though in Texas Taco Cabana rules. I try not to eat out too much though because its really expensive and my girlfriend likes to cook.

Why are you vegetarian and Straight Edge? Why do you eat 2 cans of canned corn as a meal?

I don’t do that on a regular basis, I just happened to eat a lot of corn from that one convenience store in Austin because it was like $0.80 a can and corn is delicious. I became a vegetarian a little over 5 years ago for health reasons. When I was 12 I used to buy like $20 worth of candy at random gas stations and eat that for dinner. I don’t know why but when I was 14 I started wanting to be more healthy so I started eating well. Smoking is just dumb, and when I was 12 I tried a sip of a beer and a 40 and they tasted terrible so I never wanted to drink. I also didn’t want to end up like this ( A22 Note: NOT SAFE FOR WORK ).

HAHAHHAHAH what the fuck is that? That picture is fucking crazy. That’s a ton of poop for a relatively small girl to produce.

Yeah she must’ve eaten a lot. And I found that on the Come Up Board actually, you’re slacking at reading your own site.

How bummed were you on going to jail on Megatour?

Pretty fucking bummed. My mom spent a whole lot of money on a lawyer, and I had to wake up at 4 in the morning two times to take the train to New York for court. Not to mention actually spending 24 hours in jail eating shit food and being freezing. All for something I had nothing to do with.

You have a gigantic, expensive ramp in the back yard of your parents house that you never ride. Why don’t you ride it and what is the status of the ramp?

I do occasionally. I’ve had it for over 4 years now and I rode it SO much in the first 3 years, I just kind of got burnt out on it. The ramp is still fine though, I’ve had to go through and replace all the broken screws a few times but other than that its still perfect. Local kids still ride it a couple times a week too so it’s not just sitting there.

(Photo: Keith Romanowski. Keith offered to set up flashes to shoot this photo but Ben said he would find a bigger one later in the trip. He never found a bigger one, but the photo came out sick and got used for the Megatour box art.)

How sick of people asking about your ears are you?

Whatever I’m used to it by now. Its mostly the blacks who ask about it, old white people just stare without saying anything.

What’s the gayest thing you’ve ever seen me do?

I thought about it this for a while since you’re really gay, but I kept drawing a blank. The best thing that comes to mind is recently when we went to Austin. The first thing we rode was that pool, and you just randomly called out to Jake and when we all looked you had your pants around your ankles shaking your wiener.

I mean I was pissing, it’s not like my dick was out for no reason. Have you ever thought about taking those brakes off?

Sureee. And never. I broke my lever recently and rode without brakes for a week and barspins are a million times easier but that’s the only thing. I use my brakes every time I ride and I would never be able to keep them off.

Is it true you’re riding for Bulldog in 2009?

No.

How do you feel about not being sponsored? Whenever I talk to people about you they say “I can’t believe nobody has sponsored that dude yet”.

I don’t sweat it. A few companies help me out with bike parts so that’s awesome. Thanks to Jay at Kink, Matt at Profile, and Jim at Sunday, I really appreciate it.

A lot of people said your Come Up DVD part was their favorite section in the video. How long did you film for that, most of the footage was supposed to be in the Take DVD that never happened right?

Thanks to whoever said that haha. I don’t really know, the footage was probably filmed over the year and a half before the DVD came out. And yeah probably 75% of the clips were from a part that was supposed to go in the Take video that never happened because of all the ownership changes. I was just sitting on that footage when you asked me to have a part in your DVD and I think I filmed for that for like 6 months or something.

This is kind of a boring question but I wanted to mention your Defgrip video part since it was so good. How did the idea for that come about, were you intentionally filming for a web video over the Summer?

It just kind of happened. I was taking a bunch of trips up to Philly and staying with my friends Larry Rhodes and Nicky B., and I would just randomly film clips with Larry whenever we’d ride. I think that footage was filmed over the course of about 6 months. We had a ton of footage and nothing to use it for so I just had the idea to make it into a web video so the footage wouldn’t get outdated. Larry was down so we took a few hours one night and put it together. I was psyched when Larry had the idea to see if Harrison wanted to make it a Defgrip edit because it’d be high quality and it’s just a sick site.

There have been some pretty long threads about you on the internet, some of which have been filled with some zany accusations. Yet you don’t respond. Why not?

The kids that post that shit have more than likely never met me or talked to me. There’s no point to respond, its just a waste of time.

How do you feel about looking exactly like “Ras Trent“?

Nah that’s Ras Russ!

Previously: 2013 Kink Ben Hittle Pro Complete.| East Coast Calling.| Tony Hamlin & Ben Hittle Kink Tire Promo.