Arm through harness ropes on tow

[Dontsink]

Hi,i'm a newbie HG pilot from Spain( pretty far from Sylmar...) but i'm learning a lot from this section of the forum and i thought i'd contribute.
Here's my dirty laundry,sorry no video...

Second day of my begginer HG course(tow). We were on the beach,10kmh cross-onshore seabreeze and cloudless.Glider was an Ellipse Twist 15.5 and the harness a typical school knee-hanger minus the knee straps.
We started doing short,straight tows.Not even releasing the tow yet,just going through the setup-launch-land sequence in a simple as possible way.
Everything was going fine until the 5th tow,we setup nomally(hang check,radio check etc...)as we were ready to go one of the instructors noticed some people(father and kids) walking on the beach a bit close to our tow area.
The instructor that was with the tow winch walked up to talk to them and explain what we were doing.I was in the "rest" position,wheels on the ground facing the wind and arms around the downtubes.I was feeling a rope rubbing my neck below the helmet so i reached back with my right arm to flick it out of the way.
In doing so i unknowingly passed my arm through one of the front ropes...the instructor that was with me did not see it as his back was turned at that moment and he was on my left side.
They give the green light,i lift the glider,callout "pretension" and then "despegue"(takeoff).
As soon as my feet leave the ground i notice there is something very much wrong.I'm forcibly leaning to the left and i cannot pull my body to the right to correct as my right arm is being pulled up by the rope.
The winch instructor cuts the power early but i'm allready 3m off the ground and turning left with an increasing bank and nose way too high.
In survival mode i grab the right DT higher up and monkey hang all my weight there to try and level the wings and nose.Luckily the glider seems to like this and i manage an undignified runout landing without even a whack.
Whew!.
Not a very dramatic story but it shook me quite a bit.Made it clear there is zero margin for error in HG.
Lesson learned:Distractions can kill,when interrupted do the whole before takeoff checklist again...
Thanks to everybody who has the humbleness to post their mishaps here,it is very instructive.I will try and post future incidents,hope i don't have too much material...

[gregangsten]

I think the most important quality one needs as a pilot is the ability to react to the circumstances and take appropriate action. Very often, students and also experienced pilots can freeze up when they encounter a situation that is beyond their experience.

It sounds to me like you will do well.

[Dontsink]

I think the most important quality one needs as a pilot is the ability to react to the circumstances and take appropriate action. Very often, students and also experienced pilots can freeze up when they encounter a situation that is beyond their experience.

It sounds to me like you will do well.

Thanks!.
I can also react to circumstances with inappropiate action.
Just the previous day i bent a downtube...i flared just like i have been doing for years in airplanes: pulling on the controls,right?.
You can imagine the whack...