I am I distance paragliding pilot, I launched on a windy day to help cover more distance. I caught a thermal (rising warm air) up and drifted back over the hill i launched from. then fell out of the thermal and couldn't penetrate the wind to get back out in front of the hill. Caught in sinking air -5mps I sunk down into rotor (messed up air behind hills/objects) My paraglider collapsed and sent me towards a tree, i tried turning away from gthe tree then my wing spun. then i hit the ground on my back - compression fractures to my L1 and L2. Teken to hospital via rescue helicopter. 2 week in hospital and a lot of rehab ahead of me. I Flew my paraglider 5 weeks later from the same launch site, still very sore but I made a distance of 179km tracklog here: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:Upnupnup/20.1.2018/01:40 which has placed me 4th in Australian XContest sports class https://www.xcontest.org/australia/ranking-pg-sport/