Witness the rise of an enduring skateboard icon.

The 46-year-old Olympic Skateboard Park discipline skater hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, has built one of the longest and accomplished careers in modern-day skateboarding. At a time when vert riding was redefined by a new generation of pros, Glifberg brought a potent mixture to the table: A talent for blasting high airs, contorted with grace and style, mixed with kickflips and switch stance variations adapted from street skating into vertical terrain.

Being able to land difficult tricks when it counts, Glifberg advanced to win the world’s most prestigious halfpipe competitions, sometimes several times in a row, including the Slam City Jam in Vancouver (1996, 1998), Tampa Pro (2003), Gravity Games (2001, 2004), Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party (2005, 2007, 2008), Mystic Sk8 Cup (2006), and Copenhagen Pro Vert (2007, 2009).

Glifberg’s pro career also entered a highly successful second act when the competitive focus shifted from halfpipes to Park skating, a mixture of vertical bowls and street elements. Today, “The Danish Destroyer” is even designing public skateparks as a partner and co-founder of Glifberg – Lykke, a skatepark architecture and design office in Copenhagen.