Due to a recent injury, I’ve been forced to take a little break from heli skiing. Of course, I am devastated, but, on the plus side, this gave me a chance to do some other things with my time during winter for once. A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine suggested I visit possibly the world’s most influential festival in music, film and everything- the-internet, none other than SXSW (pronounced south-by-south-west), or just ‘south by’ to the indoctrinated.

So, I hopped on a plane, jetted out to Austin, Texas, couch surfed with two cool, amazing locals who fortuitously lived just 2 blocks from the epicentre, and experienced ‘complete immersion’ with the 20,000 other attendees. There is no other way to describe South-by, and I expect Burning Man has a similar impact.