https://youtu.be/csDRdqMH3Kk

This is a cautionary tale for fellow hang glider pilots.

I made a critical error during my setup which caused my harness to separate from
my wing and forced me to hold on to the control frame for my life. Fortunate
circumstances led to me surviving this incident with relatively minor injuries.

I was asked if I thought about landing in the ocean to possibly soften the
landing. In the moment I had not thought of doing this, however I don't think
that I would've decided to do so given my fast rate of decent, the low tide, and
the fact that I risked not being able to swim while in my harness (although the
risk of being trapped under my wing might have been significantly less
considering I was no longer connected to it).

It's very fortunate that the hang loop let loose while I was facing into the
wind. The wind this day was consistent at about 20 mph. The fact that my crash
landing was going into the wind meant that my ground speed was significantly
slowed (as compared to if my crash landing was going down wind).

Considering I used this hang loop setup for many flights in the mountains, this
location is potentially the most fortunate place for such an incident to occur.
I can't imagine having to hold on to the glider for much longer than I did. If
this had occurred in the mountains, where the landing zone is much further away
from the launch, I doubt that I would have had the strength to hang on for the
duration of the flight out to the landing zone.