“I 100% Should Have Died”: Skier Reveals the Wild Story Behind His New Short Film

Since he was a kid, Parkin Costain had dreamed of being a professional skier.

In school, his textbooks were filled with doodles, and his mind was often elsewhere when it should have been focused on his studies. All of Costain’s daydreaming paid off, landing him a segment in Teton Gravity Research's (TGR) 2018 annual film, Far Out.

From there, Costain’s career took off. The now 26-year-old has been in his fair share of major film projects with companies like TGR and Benshi Creative. Costain has competed in Jackson Hole’s Kings and Queens competition several times and took home the title of King of Corbet’s in 2020. Far from the days of gazing out his classroom window, the Whitefish-born and bred skier has become a well-known and highly respected freeride athlete. 

However, despite all that Costain’s accomplished already, a key step on the proverbial ‘pro skier checklist’ eluded him until recently—releasing a solo film project.

Costain’s first solo endeavour, Flipbook, loosely chronicles his childhood days of daydreaming before launching into top-tier ski footage captured between Alaska, Canada, Wyoming, and Montana. The film was shot over a particularly fruitful 2024/25 season for Costain, during which he competed as a wildcard on the Freeride World Tour (FWT), was filmed by TGR, and scored the weather window of a lifetime in Haines, Alaska.

You can watch Flipbook by tapping or clicking below. Keep reading for more from our conversation with Costain, including that crazy crash.

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Watch: FLIPBOOK | A Ski Film by Parkin Costain

In many ways, Costain’s film goes above and beyond for a solo project, let alone one’s first. Not only does it capture his versatility and talent as a skier, but Costain also directed, produced, and edited the film himself.

Anyone in the ski industry can attest that budgets are not what they used to be. Knowing this, Costain planned to edit the film himself from the beginning in order to save funding and make sure it really came out how he wanted, despite the fact that he’d never actually edited a film before.

On top of teaching himself to edit, Costain also produced the whole film, including the classroom scene at the beginning. He found the actors, including the kid who plays (a very spot-on) younger Parkin, through his family’s bike park and paid them all in ice cream vouchers from a local shop.

To his surprise, employing a bunch of kids for the price of an ice cream cone also worked as great marketing, and soon everyone in Whitefish had heard ‘Parkin’s making a film!’

Costain knew he wanted his first solo project to not just feel representative of his own style, but stand out from what felt ‘trendy’ or cookie-cutter. When it comes to skiing, he’s trying to approach things more creatively, rather than just skiing fall line.

“Kai [Jones] definitely called me out a couple times, and I would have to go last because I became known for cross-courting the face,” Costain told me over the phone, laughing.

Costain’s creative line choice mostly worked out swimmingly for him last winter; however, one line in particular got a little hairy.

While filming near Costain’s hometown in Montana, he got a little off his intended line when he landed sideways off a pillow into some deep snow. His foot shifted, and Costain felt his ski pop off. Before he knew it, he’d flipped into a crack in the rock that was a foot and a half to two feet wide and about 60 feet deep, by Costain’s estimate.

The terrifying moment occurs at the 2:23 mark in the film.

“I 100% could have died and probably should be dead,” said Costain, “If I would've fallen head first or sideways into it, it would've been so bad. The way I pin balled through this thing, it slowed my descent, punctured my elbow really deep and it messed up one of the nerves in my arm for a couple weeks last winter.”

Luckily, Costain made it out otherwise unscathed and turned it into one of the film’s best moments. 

Flipbook is most certainly there for folks who want a few minutes of escapist ski porn, but if there’s one thing Costain really hopes viewers, especially younger ones, take away from it, it’s to follow your dreams and never grow up.