Benny G
Dieter Humpsch Kickflip | Photo: Jason Lee
Was this when you were living with Staker?
Yeah, I decided I was going to see how long I could stay. I’ve done that for five years now. But recently I got my drivers license, and my green card back after lots of lawyers and letters.
No way.
Yeah, the only ID that I had was my passport, which had been in the wash and was really mangled.
Wait. So you actually functioned in society, bought cars, rented houses, all without a license, and you were fine?
Yeah. I can’t remember how I bought my first car. I had an Astro van that I bought privately and just didn’t put plates on it or anything for a while. I was riding dirty for a while; maybe don’t put this in the interview [laughs].
Well, you’re all good now.
Yup. I nearly went home a bunch of times. I had no money, no food, no income really. The only thing I could do was work freelance for companies back home doing Web design and graphic design. So that saved me, having a laptop and being able to work. It slowly got better and I found a couple of jobs here and there too.
When did you start filming?
My friend had a little video camera back home and I always used to mess around on it and make little vids. I always wanted to film. Then I finally bought one when I was here, a little Canon. That’s what I made the first little video of Kyle Hyams on. I loved it and that’s all I wanted to do. I’ve always been into videos growing up, because videos would always get me so amped, from my surfing days especially. I would watch surf videos before school, get out of school and go surf, then go home and watch more surf videos, then the same thing for wakeboarding with Hit It and High Wake Drifters. I was always so fascinated by the videos and how they could get you so amped.
