Privacy policy

What we collect, and why

1. The “Win your surfboard” contest

If you enter the contest, the form collects:

• your first and last name, your email and your phone number — to validate your entry, carry out the draw, then reach the winner and hand over the prize;
• your postal code, your age range, whether or not you surf and how you heard about the event — used only as statistics, to know who comes to La Classique and from where;
• your confirmation that you follow La Classique Vague à Guy, RivSurf and Boutique SHARKS Laval, one of the conditions in the rules;
• if you tick the box: your agreement to receive news from RivSurf and La Classique. This is optional and changes nothing about your entry in the draw. The newsletter doesn’t exist yet: we keep your email for the day it starts, and every mailing will carry an unsubscribe link.

You are not required to give us this information: without it, we simply cannot enter you in the draw.

Where your information goes. The entry form is our own, and your answers are stored on our own server, located in Quebec (Beauharnois). They pass through no third-party service, are not hosted abroad, and nobody outside the RivSurf team can reach them — the list is password-protected. (Until September 13, 2026, entries went through Google Forms, outside Quebec. That is no longer the case.)

1b. The Eau Villa contest

On September 26, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., a second contest is held on site with Eau Villa and Van Life (rules, in French). If you enter, the form collects:

• your first and last name, email and phone number — to validate your entry (one per person), hold the 6 p.m. draw and confirm the winner;
• your postal code — to know, as statistics, where participants come from;
• your answer (yes or no) to the question about the June 2027 shoreline clean-up with Organisation Bleue — to gauge interest. If you answer yes, RivSurf may write to you about it before December 25, 2026. Your answer is not passed on to Organisation Bleue;
• your confirmation that you are 18 or older, live in Quebec, will be present at the draw and accept the rules — these are the contest’s conditions;
• if you tick the box: your consent to receive offers, promotions and the newsletter from Van Life and La Classique Vague à Guy by RivSurf. It is optional and does not improve your chances of winning. In that case only, your name and email are passed on to Van Life for those mailings; every email will include an unsubscribe link (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation).

Like the other contest’s entries, these are stored on our server in Quebec, in a separate, password-protected list. They do not go through Google.

2. Measuring our advertising campaign

If — and only if — you clicked “Accept” in the banner at the bottom of the page, we use the Meta pixel (Facebook, Instagram) to measure how our ads perform: number of visits, clicks on the contest button, completed entries. This tool places cookies on your device and sends Meta technical information (IP address, pages viewed, actions taken). Meta processes this data outside Quebec, mainly in the United States and Ireland.

Until you accept, no Meta script is loaded and no measurement cookie is placed. You can change your mind at any time: the “Manage my measurement preferences” link at the bottom of the home page reopens the choice.

3. Counting visits

We count visits to the site, to know whether it is being read and from where. This measurement is anonymous : we record no IP address, no cookie and no identifier whatsoever. What is kept fits in three columns : the day, a country code and the page — with a plain counter. From those numbers it is impossible to recognise anyone or to reconstruct a visit.

The country is inferred from your browser’s time zone (for example America/Toronto → Canada), not from your IP address : no geolocation service is involved, and nothing leaves our server. It is a deliberate approximation.

If you arrive through a campaign link — an ad, or the link in our bio, which carries utm_ parameters in the address — we count that link too, the same way: how many visits and how many entries it brought. That count is never tied to your name or to your entry: we know an ad brought 14 entries, not which ones.

These figures stay on our server in Quebec, are shared with no one, and are destroyed together with everything else on December 25, 2026. Because this measurement cannot track anyone, it does not depend on the consent banner — unlike the Meta pixel described just above, which only loads after you agree.

4. What stays on your device

The mini-game at the bottom of the page keeps your best score and your sound preference in your browser’s local storage. The site also leaves a marker there for the length of your visit, used only so we don’t count you again on every page ; it disappears as soon as you close the tab. This information never leaves your device, is never sent to us, and you can erase it by clearing your browser’s site data.

How long we keep it

• Contest entries: until 90 days after the draw of September 26, 2026, the time needed to award the prize and settle any follow-up. They are then destroyed — automatically, on December 25, 2026: the list, its backups and the technical log. It isn’t an intention, it’s a date written into the program that holds the list.
• Eau Villa contest entries: same rule, same date — automatically destroyed on December 25, 2026, along with their backups.
• News subscription, if you asked for it: your email stays on the mailing list until you unsubscribe. ⚠️ If the newsletter hasn’t started by December 25, 2026, your email is destroyed along with the rest — we keep nothing “just in case” beyond that date.
• Van Life newsletter, if you asked for it in the Eau Villa contest: once passed on, your email is kept by Van Life until you unsubscribe.
• Meta measurement data: kept by Meta according to its own retention periods; we keep no copy.
• Visit and campaign-link counts (anonymous): kept with everything else until December 25, 2026, then destroyed. They are totals only, with no personal information in them.

Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade your information. Contest entries stay on our server, with three specific exceptions:

• Boutique SHARKS Laval, the prize partner, receives only the surfboard winner’s name, in order to hand over the prize;
• Eau Villa receives only the name and contact details of its contest’s winner, to arrange the stay;
• Van Life receives the name and email of Eau Villa entrants who ticked its newsletter box — and no one else’s.

The only technical provider in the loop is Meta, for advertising measurement, and only if you consented.

Because these providers are located outside Quebec, your information is processed there. We chose widely used services bound by contractual protection commitments, but the level of protection in those jurisdictions may differ from Quebec’s.

Your rights

At any time, you can write to us to:

• access the information we hold about you;
• have it corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
• withdraw your consent — which also withdraws your contest entry;
• request the deletion of your information;
• receive a copy of your information in a structured, commonly used technological format (portability);
• file a complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec if our answer does not satisfy you.

Write to the person in charge listed at the top of this page. We answer within a maximum of 30 days.

Privacy incident

In the event of an incident presenting a risk of serious injury, we notify the people concerned and the Commission d’accès à l’information, and we keep the register required by law.

Minors

The “Win your surfboard” contest is open to people aged 14 and over. Under 14, the entry must be made by a parent or guardian. The Eau Villa contest is reserved for adults (18 and over) who live in Quebec.