Go BAÏST with Jake Hopfinger and Parkin Costain in “Dollar Short”

 

The short film follows a ballsy pair of skiers outfitted with BAÏST gear on “a winter full of bank robberies, pillow lines, and everything in between.”

By Owen Clarke

“Dollar Short” has plenty of shots of money being burned, but Jake Hopfinger and Parkin Costain spend far more time during the 12-minute film burning down wild lines instead. We tag along with the dauntless duo as they go from winter to spring to summer in the rugged peaks of backcountry Bozeman, Montana, keeping the stoke high all the while.

BAÏST gloves give Jake and Parkin the burly protection and warmth they needed to tackle everything from backcountry big air to sketchy couloir descents and… Yes, a bank robbery to start it all off.

The film shows our gloves on warm, balmy spring runs and foul, low-vis, brutally cold conditions. It shows BAÏST gear guarding Jake and Parkin’s hands as they fly down the sides of rocky backcountry ridgelines, pop rad aerials, and gun snowmobiles up to full throttle. 

BAÏST offers the most extreme cold weather gloves in existence, and “Dollar Short” shows ‘em all in action.

It’s not just the badass ski footage you’d expect, though. Jake and Parkin go on a wild ride off the slopes too, rife with a handful of fistfights, mosh pits, drunken traipsing, and guitar solos. There are more than a few hair-raising wipeouts, too (Hey… it happens to the best of us). It’s not all smooth sailing.

The point is… There are good days and bad ones. 

We like to think that lines up with the BAÏST ethos and mission pretty well. 

We recognize that not every day is going to bring perfect pow (physical or metaphorical). In fact, we embrace that fact.

There are going to be slushy, icy, shitty runs in our lives, whether we’re on the slopes or off. There are going to be days with bad vis. There are going to be lost jobs and illnesses and breakups and hangovers and injuries… and even pandemics.

It’s our job to keep our spirits up and never stop charging, no matter what the world throws at us.

By the end of “Dollar Short,” summer has arrived. The snow has melted, Jake and Parkin’s cash is spent, and the pair have to sell their toys, eventually working as dishwashers to make ends meet. 

But they don’t give up. In the film’s final sequence, they gather a group of psyched friends, pack up high into the mountains, and finally discover a snow-filled gully to bomb together, even amid the desolate warmth of an alpine May. 

We love seeing that. 

We love seeing folks getting after it, no matter the conditions or climes, and we love supporting those missions.

So, we’ve dedicated ourselves to making glove systems to match that level of stoke. We want to support EVERYONE who wants to charge, whether in the terrain park, resort slopes, or the wildest backcountry, and we’ve made the best snowboard gloves and best ski gloves to suit their (or better put… YOUR) needs.

So, expect a kickass soundtrack and epic visuals in “Dollar Short,” but expect to see BAÏST keeping Jake and Parkin’s hands grippy, safe, dry, and warm throughout the film, on the good runs and the bad. 

 

That’s just how we do things.

With that in mind, you might be wondering… 

How did the duo go from frigid December and January to balmy April and May, when their ill-begotten cash finally runs dry, wearing BAÏST all the while? 

That’s because BAÏST doesn’t just make one boring old glove. 

We have the BAÏST Build-Your-Own System, where you can design the ULTIMATE multi-part glove system, custom-suited for your needs. You can take your Build-Your-Own system from winter to spring to missions off the slopes, layering and combining it to fit your needs.

 

Dollar Short // Presented By Sweet Protection from Benshi Creative on Vimeo.

 

 

Owen Clarke, BAÏST’s lead writer, is an outdoor and adventure travel writer, specializing in mountaineering and long-distance motorcycle riding. His work appears in 30+ outdoor and travel magazines, including Outside, Travel+Leisure, Backpacker, and The Outdoor Journal. Among other roles, he currently works as an editor-at-large for Climbing magazine, the executive editor of Skydiving Source and Indoor Skydiving Source, and the lead writer for the adventure guiding company Benegas Brothers Expeditions.