Hang gliding. Isn't that an awesome thing to do! I used to fly using club gear, but now I'm 25 kg heavier and don't have access the resources anyway. Would love to get back into it.
Sorry about your friend, Ian. It feels like the most natural and safest thing when you're up there. I had three stacks, all through my own stupidity. Two big ones:
1. Landing my behemoth Moyes Mars 190 in the surf at Portsea -- in the off-limits military/navy zone; the glider was torn to bits by the waves.
2. Landing a Moyes Mission 170 on top of trees (one tree per wing tip, me in the middle at 30+feet) near Lorne. I was trying to get more lift off a larger hill behind a small one, but went down in the gully in between. I climbed down from the trees using the glider and batten bags. We actually managed to retrieve the glider and got it repaired for around $600 IIRC.
All my incidents were due to my inexperience and hot-headedness, and happened after 3+ hours of non-stop flying. Hardly a scratch on me though. I was very lucky, and the gliders seemed to be very good at absorbing the impact.