Terms of Use

1. Who we are and what kitesurfing.me is

kitesurfing.me is operated by Frederik Goldbach, Julius-Hatry-Straße 1, 68163 Mannheim, Germany (see the Impressum). It is two things:

• A comparison site for kitesurfing and other watersports schools and spots. Most listings are information only, compiled from publicly available sources, contributions and data schools send us.
• An online marketplace: some schools ("partner schools") let you send a booking request for their courses, camps or rentals through kitesurfing.me. Section 3 explains how that works.

A listing does not mean that a school is affiliated with us, endorsed by us or checked by us for safety or instructor quality, unless we say so explicitly.

2. Prices and information

Prices, course details, certifications, opening hours and spot conditions on listing and comparison pages are non-binding and reflect the best information available to us when we last checked; the "as of" date next to a price shows when that was. Schools can change their prices at any time, so please confirm with the school before you book elsewhere. On a partner school's course, camp or rental page, the price and terms are the ones the school has given us for that offer; the price shown when you send your request is the price of your request.

3. Booking requests to partner schools (marketplace)

• Your contract is with the school. The partner school named on the offer provides the course, camp or rental and is your only contract partner, under its own booking and cancellation terms, which we show before you send your request. kitesurfing.me is not a party to that contract and does not provide the lessons or other services itself.
• Business or private seller. Each offer says whether the school has declared to us that it offers its services as a business (trader). If a provider declares that it is not a trader, the special consumer protection rules for contracts between consumers and businesses do not apply to your contract with it.
• What we do. We pass your request to the school and send you the school's answers, booking messages and a link to your personal booking page. Schools use kitesurfing.me for this, but that gives you no contractual claims against kitesurfing.me; your claims under the booking are against the school.
• How a request works. Sending a request costs nothing. The school confirms it, declines it or suggests another time. Your booking is confirmed only when the school has confirmed it; from then on the school's booking and cancellation terms apply. Some offers can be booked at once: the button then says that you book and pay at the school, and that booking is binding immediately.
• Payment. You pay the school directly, as stated on the offer (for example cash on the first day). kitesurfing.me does not collect or hold any payments from guests.
• Our commission. Partner schools pay kitesurfing.me a commission on bookings made through kitesurfing.me. You pay the school's own price; we add nothing on top.
• Cancellation and withdrawal. EU consumer law gives no right of withdrawal for leisure services that are booked for a specific date or period (Art. 16(l) Directive 2011/83/EU). What happens if you cancel, or if the wind or the school cancels, follows the school's terms shown on the offer.
• Problems with a booking. Please contact the school first; your booking page shows how. If that doesn't work, write to us and we will try to help, although we cannot decide the matter for the school.
• A school's own website on our software. Some schools run their own website and booking system on kitesurfing.me's software (for example at kitesurfing.me/<school> or on their own domain). There the school is the operator of the site; its own legal notice and privacy policy apply, and we are only the technical provider.

4. How we sort and compare schools

Unless you choose a sort order yourself, school lists are sorted by these criteria, in this order of priority. Each criterion only decides between schools that are equal on all the criteria before it:

1. Verified listing: the school has confirmed its own listing with us.
2. Featured: the school shows a kitesurfing.me badge or widget, with a link to us, on its own website. This is the only advantage in the order that a school can get in return for something.
3. How complete the profile is: whether we have a beginner price, a private lesson price, rental, languages and certification for the school (on the home page also whether it has a photo or logo).
4. Last tie-breaker: on kitesurfing spot pages the lower price of a beginner lesson per hour; on wing foil, windsurfing and surfing pages the school name in alphabetical order. In the school finder the default order uses, instead of criterion 3, how many services and activities the school offers, then the lower beginner price per hour.

In the school finder you can choose another order (for example lowest price, most languages); verified and featured schools still come first within it, and a price sort compares only prices that are comparable.

Partner schools. Where a partner school offers bookable courses, camps or rentals at a spot, those offers are shown in their own booking section on the spot page, and the school is marked "Book online" in the school finder. Partner schools pay us a commission on bookings (section 3). Being a partner does not change a school's place in the school list itself.

Which schools a comparison includes. Our comparisons and price averages include every school in our directory for that place and sport, whether or not it is a partner. Entries we have removed (for example at a school's request, or because it is not a school) are not included. A price average is shown only from prices schools publish.

We do not sell positions in our lists. If that ever changes, paid placements will be clearly labelled.

5. Reviews

kitesurfing.me currently shows no customer reviews or ratings of schools. If we show reviews in future, we will say where they come from and whether and how we check that they were written by people who actually took the lesson. We never write, buy or commission reviews, and we do not allow fake reviews.

6. Your contributions

You can send us information about schools and spots (for example prices or photos) without an account. By submitting it, you confirm that it is true to the best of your knowledge and that you have the right to share it, including the consent of anyone recognisable in a photo. You give kitesurfing.me a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, display, edit and translate it as part of the service.

7. What is not allowed, and how we moderate

Contributions, booking requests, messages and school content must not be illegal, misleading, defamatory, spam, or infringe other people's rights (for example copyright or privacy). Partner schools must keep their offers, prices and terms accurate.

We may check contributions and school content at any time, and we act on reports (section 8). Our forms filter out automated spam submissions automatically; every other decision about content is made by a person. If something breaks these rules, we can correct it, not publish it, remove it, hide a listing, or stop an offer or a school's bookability. We decide carefully, objectively and proportionately, with regard to everyone's rights and interests, including freedom of expression.

If we remove or restrict your content, listing or bookability and have your email address, we tell you what we did and why: the facts, and the law or the part of these terms the decision is based on. You can reply to ask us to look at it again, and you can go to court.

8. Reporting illegal content

Anyone can report content on kitesurfing.me that they consider illegal or in breach of these terms. See Report content for how, and what happens next.

9. Opt-out and corrections for listed schools

If you run a school listed on kitesurfing.me and want to (a) be removed, (b) correct any part of your listing, or (c) claim and verify it, email kitesurfingaddictions2002@gmail.com from an address on the school's official domain or otherwise show that you represent the school. We handle removal and correction requests within 14 days. School names, logos and trademarks belong to their owners and are used only to identify the school.

10. Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and under the German Product Liability Act. For slight negligence we are liable only if we breach an obligation that is essential for providing our service and on which you may regularly rely; in that case our liability is limited to the damage that is typical and foreseeable for this kind of service. Otherwise we are not liable for slight negligence.

The lessons, camps, rentals and other services of the schools are provided by the schools on their own responsibility. Kitesurfing and other watersports carry a risk of injury: follow the school's safety instructions and judge for yourself whether a school and its conditions suit you.

11. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by German law, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not take away the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live. If you are a merchant, the place of jurisdiction is Mannheim, Germany. We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

12. Changes to these terms

We update these terms when kitesurfing.me changes; the date at the top shows the current version. A booking request is governed by the version in force when you sent it.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: email kitesurfingaddictions2002@gmail.com. This is also our single point of contact for users and authorities under Articles 11 and 12 of the EU Digital Services Act; you can write to us in English or German. See also our Privacy Policy and Impressum.