Va'a Coaching Terms of Service

DRAFT v0.1 — 2026-09-24. Not legal advice. A qualified lawyer must review these terms before launch, in particular the assumption-of-risk, liability, dispute-resolution and auto-renewal sections and the rules for minors. Items in [brackets] are placeholders to fill in.

Effective date: [date]

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and [ARE Tahiti legal entity name] ("Va'a Coaching", "we", "us"), [address], United States. They cover vaacoaching.com, the Va'a Coaching iOS and Android apps, courses, coaching, live classes, community and related services (the "Services"). By creating an account or using the Services you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

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1. Who can use Va'a Coaching

• You must be at least 13 (at least 15 in France) to have your own account, and able to form a binding contract where you live. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these Terms for you.
• Children under 13 (under 15 in France) may use the Services only through a family account created and managed by a parent or legal guardian who has given consent. The parent is responsible for the child's use, purchases and supervision, including on and near the water.
• Clubs may enroll their paddlers through a club account. The club manager confirms they have authority to do so.

2. Your account

Keep your sign-in details secure and tell us immediately at [support@vaacoaching.com] if you think your account has been misused. You are responsible for activity on your account. Accounts are personal: don't share them or let others use them. Club seats are assigned to named paddlers.

3. Water safety and assumption of risk

Paddling, including outrigger canoe (va'a) paddling, is a water sport with inherent risks, including serious injury, hypothermia and drowning.

• Our courses, videos, live classes, coaching and AI feedback are educational only. They are not a substitute for in-person instruction, supervision or safety training, and they are not medical advice.
• You are responsible for judging your own fitness, skills, and water and weather conditions; for wearing appropriate safety gear (such as a personal flotation device and leash); for never paddling alone in unsafe conditions; and for following local laws, harbor rules and club rules.
• Check with a doctor before starting any new training program.
• In-person clinics, camps and test paddles require a separately signed liability waiver and an emergency contact (the parent signs for minors). Sessions may be cancelled for unsafe weather or ocean conditions; you'll then get a credit or refund. Ocean-condition indicators in the app are guidance only. The coach on site and your own judgment decide.
• To the fullest extent permitted by law, you voluntarily assume all risks of paddling and training activities you take part in based on the Services. Parents assume these risks on behalf of their children and are responsible for supervising them.

4. Purchases, subscriptions and payments

4.1 Where you buy

• On our website, payments are processed by Stripe.
• In our iOS or Android app, purchases are made through Apple's App Store or Google Play, and their payment terms also apply. Billing, renewals and refunds for in-app purchases are handled by Apple or Google under their policies.
• Whatever you buy on one platform unlocks the same content everywhere you sign in to Va'a Coaching. Prices may differ between the website and the app stores.

4.2 Subscriptions and auto-renewal

• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (for example monthly or yearly) at the then-current price, until you cancel. We show the price, billing period and renewal terms clearly before you buy.
• Cancel any time: website purchases from your account's Billing page; App Store or Google Play purchases from your Apple or Google account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, and you keep access until then.
• If a price changes, we'll tell you in advance and you can cancel before it applies.
• Free trials, if offered, convert to paid subscriptions unless you cancel before the trial ends.

4.3 Payment plans

If you choose a payment plan, you agree to pay all installments. If a payment fails, we may pause access until it is paid.

4.4 Refunds

[Refund policy, e.g.: "Courses: full refund within [14] days of purchase if you have completed less than [20]% of the course. Coaching sessions: free cancellation up to [24] hours before the session. Subscriptions: no refunds for partial periods except where required by law."] Refunds for app-store purchases must be requested from Apple or Google. Consumers in the EU/UK keep any statutory withdrawal rights that apply to them.

4.5 Taxes

Prices may exclude taxes, which are calculated at checkout where required.

5. Coaching, live classes and recordings

• Coaching sessions and live classes take place over video and audio. Be on time; a no-show may count as a used session under [the cancellation policy].
• Sessions may be recorded to provide replays and to improve training. You will always be told before recording starts. For children, the parent's settings apply.
• Coaches are selected and managed by ARE Tahiti. Coaches who work with children have completed a background check.
• Be respectful. We may end a session or suspend access for abusive behavior.

6. AI features

Va'a Coaching uses AI for things like subtitles and translations, search inside videos, tutor answers from our course content, and technique analysis of your paddling videos.

• AI output can be wrong or incomplete. Technique metrics are estimates that depend on camera angle, lighting and water conditions. Use your judgment and ask a coach when in doubt.
• AI feedback is not medical, safety or professional advice.
• Don't use AI features to generate unlawful or harmful content or to extract our course content in bulk.

7. Our content and your license to use it

All courses, videos, text, graphics, software, and the Va'a Coaching and ARE Tahiti names and logos are owned by us or our licensors and protected by intellectual property laws.

When you buy or subscribe, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access that content for your own non-commercial training, for as long as your purchase or subscription gives you access. You may not:

• copy, download (except with the in-app offline feature), screen-record, re-upload, share, resell or publicly show our content;
• share your account or club seats with others;
• use bots, scrapers or other automated means to access the Services or copy content;
• use our content to train AI models;
• bypass content protection or access restrictions.

Offline downloads stay inside the app, are encrypted, and stop working when your access ends.

8. Your content

"Your content" means what you post or upload: technique videos, community posts, comments, messages, quiz answers and profile information.

• You keep ownership of your content.
• You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process (including with AI as described in the Privacy Policy), translate, display and share your content only as needed to provide and improve the Services for you (for example, showing a post to your community or sending your technique video to your coach). This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies we must keep by law or that others have already reshared within the Services.
• We will not use your technique videos in our marketing or courses without your separate permission (and a parent's, for children).
• You confirm you have the rights to what you upload, including consent from any other person clearly shown in your videos.

9. Community and acceptable use

Don't:

• harass, threaten, bully or discriminate against anyone;
• post content that is illegal, sexual, violent, hateful, or that endangers children;
• contact a child outside the rules of the platform, or ask any user for personal contact details or images;
• impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation;
• post spam, advertising or malware;
• post other people's personal information;
• interfere with or try to break the security of the Services.

We may remove content and suspend or close accounts that break these rules, and we report child-safety issues to the appropriate authorities.

10. Apple App Store additional terms

If you downloaded our app from the Apple App Store: these Terms are between you and us, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support, and is not responsible for any claims relating to the app (including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, or intellectual property claims). If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple for a refund of the purchase price (if any); otherwise, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no warranty obligation. You confirm you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo and are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. You must also comply with the App Store's Usage Rules.

11. Changes to the Services and these Terms

We may change or discontinue features. If we remove content you paid for during an active purchase period, we will offer a replacement or a pro-rated refund. We may update these Terms; for material changes we'll notify you in advance by email or in the app. Continuing to use the Services after changes take effect means you accept them.

12. Ending your account

You can close your account at any time from your settings (for app-store subscriptions, also cancel with Apple or Google). We may suspend or close accounts for serious or repeated breaches of these Terms, non-payment, or to comply with law. Sections that by their nature should continue (for example 3, 7, 8, 13–16) survive.

13. Disclaimers

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don't promise that the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any training will produce a particular result. Some jurisdictions don't allow these disclaimers, so they may not fully apply to you.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Services is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited by law.

15. Indemnity

You agree to defend and indemnify us against claims arising from your content, your breach of these Terms, or your misuse of the Services, to the extent permitted by law.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [Hawaii] and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. [Dispute-resolution clause to be decided with counsel: e.g., informal resolution first, then the state and federal courts in [Honolulu, Hawaii], or binding individual arbitration with a small-claims option.] If you are a consumer in the EU/UK or Japan, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and may bring claims in your local courts.

17. General

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services. If any part is unenforceable, the rest still applies. Our failure to enforce a term is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them in a merger or sale. If there's a conflict between language versions of these Terms, the English version controls, except where local law requires otherwise.

18. Contact

[ARE Tahiti legal entity name] — Va'a Coaching [Address] Email: [support@vaacoaching.com]