Yep, been there, done that. Even had a T-shirt that said "Remember when hang gliding was dangerous and sex was safe?". It was really cool. The HG pilots were little sperms launching off of a female breast. But, I digress...
I learned to HG in the Bay Area in the late 80's. Eventually became a Hang IV (jokes abound, but that was the rating system back then), which basically meant that you could fly at any sanctioned site in the country. When it's good, you can fly all day. When it's bad, you get a 15 minute sled ride. Every flight ends with a flair, which if timed wrong leads to some sort of damage to either you or a downtube. I've got over 200 hours logged over about 4 years, with one flight being a cross country of 65 miles, terminating at my high school football field. The coolest flight I had was over Telluride, and you really appreciate the altitude when you're setting up at 12,500MSL. Had a bald eagle almost land on my leading edge - really big talons on those guys. He instead tucked in behind me, laughed at how ugly I was, and moved on. Only twice was I truely worried for my life, but things worked out.
Long story short, I started flying VW bugs across the sky and sold the glider in the early 90s. The shirt wore out, too. But, hang gliding is by far the most fun I've ever had in the air.
