Having guests sign a waiver for a surf lesson, workshop or activity

In the EU a waiver hardly lets you exclude your liability for injury towards consumers. It is still worth having: a signed waiver shows that the guest knew the risks and rules, got the instructions and gave honest information about their health and experience. Have every participant sign separately, and a parent for each child.

What is a waiver for an activity?

A statement a participant signs before they go surfing, diving, climbing or work with tools. It is also called a release form, disclaimer or liability waiver. This piece is about the EU, with the Netherlands and Belgium as examples. Rules differ elsewhere, for instance in the UK and the US.

Can a waiver exclude your liability?

Towards a consumer hardly, and certainly not for injury caused by your own fault.

• EU: the directive on unfair terms lists clauses that exclude or limit liability “in the event of the death of a consumer or personal injury” as an example of an unfair term (annex, point 1 (a)).
• Netherlands: a clause that frees you from a legal obligation to pay damages is presumed to be unreasonably onerous (article 6:237 (f) of the Civil Code). It is a presumption: a court weighs each case.
• Belgium: a clause that excludes liability for death or injury of the consumer caused by an act or omission of the business is always unlawful (article VI.83, 25° of the Code of Economic Law).

Your business liability insurance remains the real safety net.

What do you put in a waiver?

A waiver gets its strength from being specific about your activity. These are the parts that matter:

Part	Why
What the activity involves and which risks come with it	the guest knows what they are starting
The rules and instructions, such as wearing a wetsuit or staying between the flags	you show that you gave them
Questions about health and experience, such as being able to swim	you can adapt or refuse a lesson
Consent for photos, as a separate tick box	it should not be tied to taking part
Name, date of birth, date and signature per participant	you know who signed what
The version of the text	after a change you know which version applied

Write in plain language and in the guest’s language. Nobody reads four pages of legal language, and then it is hard to argue the guest knew the risks.

Can you ask participants about their health?

Yes, with conditions. Health data is a special category of personal data under the GDPR. Processing it is prohibited unless an exception applies, such as the participant’s explicit consent (in the Netherlands article 22 of the GDPR Implementation Act). In practice:

• ask only what you need for safety, such as asthma, epilepsy or pregnancy for a dive;
• let the participant consent explicitly, with a tick box of its own;
• show the answers only to the instructor of that lesson;
• do not keep them longer than needed.

Who signs for a child?

A parent or guardian. In the Netherlands people under 18 are minors (article 1:233 of the Civil Code). For consent to use personal data, the Dutch GDPR Implementation Act requires the legal representative’s consent under the age of 16. So with a family, have each participant sign separately: the adults themselves, a parent for every child.

Paper or digital?

A stack of paper forms at the desk costs half an hour on a busy Saturday and gets lost in a wet surf shack. Signing digitally can happen at home, before the lesson. The signature then sits with the booking straight away. Let whoever forgot sign on a tablet on the day.

Getting it signed with Superota

You write a waiver per language and choose per activity which one the guest signs. Every participant signs in the guest portal, or on a tablet at the desk through a link that works for an hour. Below the age you set (18 by default) a parent or guardian signs. The emails before the lesson remind guests who have not signed yet. On the booking you see how many signatures are still missing.

With every signature Superota keeps who signed and as whom, the date of birth, date and time, the version and language of the text and where it was signed. You can download it as a PDF. Nobody can change or remove a signature, not even an administrator. When you change the text, you publish a new version and decide whether people who already signed must sign again.

You ask health questions with the participant questions of the activity.