iOS Adding Menu Causes Crash When Not First View - ios

Question

I am using a storyboard to switch between views. Pretty simple, until I try to add ECSlidingViewController.
If I add the above slide menu to the first view I call using this:
self.topViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Main"];
If I set #"Main" to #"Speakers", the view loads just fine. I get the slide menu and everything. #"Main" also loads just fine.
However, if I load #"Main" first like in the code above, then switch views to the one I've designated "Speakers", it crashes as soon as I try to call the slide menu with this code:
if(![self.slidingViewController.underLeftViewController isKindOfClass:[MenuViewController class]]) {
self.slidingViewController.underLeftViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Menu"];
}
[self.view addGestureRecognizer:self.slidingViewController.panGesture];
I get a crash stating: * Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '* -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: object cannot be nil'
I have tried switching views numerous ways.
I've tried:
SpeakersView *second= [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Speakers"];
[self presentViewController:second animated:YES completion:nil];
I've tried:
SpeakersView *svc = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Speakers"];
[self presentViewController:svc animated:YES completion:nil];
Each one works just fine if I don't call up the slide menu, but each causes a crash when I do add the slide gesture.
Ideas?

Answer 1

Okay, I figured it out. After a long, arduous experience, I figured it out.
So I've got numerous files (.m and .h for each):
InitViewController
MenuViewController
MainViewController
SpeakersView
The objective was to switch from MainViewController using a button not on the slide menu to SpeakersView, but doing it directly caused the slide menu to be null, as was pointed out by Phillip Mills.
Instead, I put this in InitViewController.h, right underneath #Interface:
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSString *location;
Then this under #implementation in InitViewController.m:
#synthesize location;
I originally had this under ViewDidLoad in InitViewController.m:
self.topViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Main"];
I changed it to this:
if([location length] == 0){location = #"Main";}
self.topViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:location];
That way if the variable was empty, it defaulted to #"Main".
Then in MainView.m, where I execute the code after pressing the button, I have this:
InitViewController *ini;
ini = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"Init"];
ini.location = #"Speakers";
And voilà, the view switches just fine to Speakers. More accurately, it switches to InitViewController which automatically switches to Speakers or whatever I set location to.
Thanks to everyone for your help.