A ski rental shop signs more waivers for children than almost any other rental business. School groups, family weeks, kids’ packages: on a holiday Saturday half the boots going out the door are under size 5. Every one of those rentals raises the two questions a waiver process has to answer cleanly: who is allowed to sign for this skier, and are the numbers on the fitting record actually the child’s.
This post covers how to handle both in a digital waiver flow, with the specifics of how Ribbe does it. For the document itself, see the ski rental waiver template; for where the signing happens, the digital waivers post.
Two things stack up. First, a release signed by a minor is unenforceable nearly everywhere, and a parent’s pre-injury release on behalf of a child is enforceable in some states, limited in others and void in a few. Your attorney tells you where you stand; the process has to make sure that whatever signature your state honours is the one you collect.
Second, the fitting record for a child is more sensitive than for an adult. A ten-year-old’s weight and height change between December and March, and a parent guessing in the line is how a binding gets set from the wrong numbers. The waiver and the check-in form have to get the child’s inputs, not the parent’s best recollection.
In Ribbe the age rule is a site setting under POS settings, Checkout Rules, “Waiver age verification”. It is off by default. Switch it on and set the age (eighteen is offered; set what your state and your insurer want). From then on the rule applies on every signing channel: the register, the customer display, the kiosk, the phone QR flow, the storefront and the emailed link.
One setting, every screen. There is no version of the waiver that skips the check because it happened on a tablet instead of the counter.
With the rule on, a signer must give a date of birth before the signature is accepted. If the contact already has one on file it is used; if not, it is asked and saved to the profile, so next season it is not asked again. The server, not the screen, enforces this: a signature submitted without a date of birth is refused with a clear reason, whichever device sent it.
The age calculated from that date is what decides whether this skier is a minor for the waiver. It is not the “age” question on the check-in form, which is a sizing input and can be whatever the parent typed.
a woman teaching a child how to ski
When the signer is under the threshold, the signing screen changes. The customer display and the phone show a guardian banner explaining that a parent or guardian must sign. A guardian name is required, and the signature is recorded as that person signing for the child: the signer on the record reads, for example, “Jane Doe (Parent of Sam Doe)”. That line is inside the signing evidence, so it cannot be edited later without the record showing it.
The document itself prints the guardian section unconditionally in Ribbe’s ski template, so a paper or PDF copy always shows where the parent signed and in what capacity.
The check-in form asks sizing per person, which means the child has a card of their own with their own weight, height, age and ability. Encourage parents to use real numbers: the help text under weight can say “from the last doctor’s visit is fine” and the number field’s limits stop an adult weight being entered on a child’s card by mistake. Skier type for a child is almost always Type I; let the parent choose it, as the waiver requires, but describe the types in plain language so they choose well.
Those inputs go onto the child’s profile, and the fitting station calculates the DIN from them. The number printed on the waiver is the one the technician set. A parent signing a document that shows a release setting derived from numbers they typed is exactly the record you want when a claim arrives.
Number questions for weight, height and sole length with limits, bound to each person's profile
If your check-in form adds products from answers, use an age condition rather than a separate “child?” question. The ski booking template splits every item into a kids’ version for age under 13 and an adult version at 13 and over; walking boots are adult-only. The order reaches the counter with the right package on the right person and the counter confirms it at the bench.
Pick the age that matches your price list, not ours; the condition is yours to set.
Rules in the form designer add products and extra waivers from a person's answers, such as their age
A teacher with thirty children cannot be the parent of any of them. For groups, collect the parental waivers before the trip by sending the contract link to the families in advance so each child’s record carries a parent’s signature, and have the group leader sign only the rental agreement for the equipment. The age rule still runs on the day: a child whose waiver was signed at home shows as signed, and one whose was not is flagged at the counter rather than discovered after an injury.
Turn on Waiver age verification per site and set the age your attorney and insurer want.
Keep the guardian section in the waiver and make the fitting-inputs clause apply to the child.
Give each child their own card on the check-in form; use number limits and plain-language skier types.
Use age conditions, not a “child?” tick, to pick kids’ packages.
Send the contract link ahead for groups and family bookings.
Review the signing record: it should name the guardian as signing for the child.
Get the right signature on every child’s waiver Ribbe requires a date of birth, routes minors to a parent or guardian on every signing channel and records who signed for whom. Start a free trial for your ski shop. Start a free trial