Dave Nelson | SecretPenguin Blog

Last week I went to the International Christian Skateboard Conference to give a talk about Design and Branding for skateboard ministries (I’ll post more about that in my next post). The whole event was great. Big thanks to Uli & Toni Frallicciardi, Joe Ferraro, Nico Sankovic and everyone that put it on. (Photo above from SkateBible.com)

The weekend went super fast, so I’ll just post some photos from it all…

Flew into Texas for a connecting flight, and met up with some friends. Josh Harmony, Shane Fox, Richard Mulder and Christian Hosoi entertaining little Elijah Mulder.

We were all invited to Alan “Ollie” Gelfand‘s private skatepark, OllieWood. The above video is Jud Farmboy Heald, Christian Hosoi and Lance Mountain playing follow the leader.

The first night I roomed with Jud and Zac Archuleta (Congrats on going pro, Zac!). It was nice catching up with Jud again. We traveled together for years with Manna Skateboards and then with Untitled Skateboards. Jud also built my miniramp in our backyard in one day!

I met up with Josiah Gatlyn and his girlfriend, Andrea Montoya at the Foolishness premiere.

Brian Sumner and Brandon Wall‘s film, Foolishness premiere was really fun. I was happy to be able to do the Skate Bible logo.

After the premiere, was an art show that I had a piece in. Above is Jesse Fellers imitating my monster behind him.

Lance Mountain had a bunch of amazing paintings in the show. This one was one of my favorites.

Lance imitating his Heel Bruise shirt.

Here’s a pair of Toms I designed for an auction.

We ate at this diner a lot of late nights. Pictured above is Christian Hosoi, me, Dave Reasbeck, Lance Mountain, Josh Harmony and Zac Archuleta.

Island Water Sports had a big event by the beach. We skated the miniramp, Josh Harmony played music and Zac Archuleta spoke.

Rob and Sopheak Dolman, Jesse Fellers and I went around the corner to eat at a delicious coal fire pizza place. This is a picture of a picture screen on Rob and Sopheak’s camera. It was super fun to see Rob again. We used to travel together all the time for Manna Skateboards.

We watched a UFC fight at Uli’s friend, Jason’s house. Jason works at Crispin Porter and Bogusky. They make amazing ads, and Jason makes amazing iced tea. Thanks for having us in your home, sir!

The last night Zac and I roomed with Josh Harmony. It was cool to hear Josh’s love for music and that he enjoyed a lot of Omaha bands. Then at 3:30am, the fire alarm went off. Here’s a few of us in front of the firetruck (me, Shane Fox, Brian Sumner, Jeremy Hendrix, Zac Archuleta, Josh Harmony and Evan Kuzava). 15 minutes later, I left for the airport.

Thanks again for everyone that put on the event and participated. It was a great time!