THE FIRST PLUNGE 2026

Pony Rider - First Plunge 2026

PARTICIPANT, CAMPAIGN AND EVENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Welcome to First Plunge - a Pony Rider community campaign inviting people to reconnect with water, from peak to sea, while raising funds for the Australian Marine Conservation Society Inc (ABN 53 409 718 351)(AMCS).
PR Studio Pty Ltd trading as Pony Rider (ABN 16 606 234 628) of Unit 3, 10 Tengah Crescent, Mona Vale NSW 2103 (Pony Rider, we, us or our) has been appointed and authorised by the Australian Marine Conservation Society Inc (ABN 53 409 718 351) (AMCS) to raise funds through this community campaign.

The Participant, Campaign and Event Terms and Conditions (Terms) apply when you register for First Plunge, participate as an individual or team member, act as a team leader, create or manage a fundraising page, log a Challenge activity, submit campaign content, host an independent kickoff gathering or attend the optional Avalon Gathering. By doing any of these things, you agree to these Terms.
These Terms, together with the Privacy Statement, constitute a valid and binding agreement between us.

1. Who we are and what First Plunge includes

First Plunge (Campaign) is created, hosted and managed by PR Studio Pty Ltd trading as Pony Rider (ABN 16 606 234 628) of Unit 3, 10 Tengah Crescent, Mona Vale NSW 2103.
The Campaign includes:
Challenge: a self-directed 30-day swim or plunge challenge undertaken independently by registered participants from 1 to 30 September 2026 at locations of their own choosing.
Avalon Gathering: an optional, free indoor campaign information and group meditation session at Avalon Surf Life Saving Club on Sunday 30 August 2026 from 8:00 am to 11:30 am.
Fundraising: optional individual, team and organisation fundraising pages hosted through Raisely, with voluntary one-off donations collected directly by AMCS.

There is no organised, supervised or encouraged swim or plunge at the Avalon Gathering. Attendees must not swim, plunge, participate in swimming or plunging activities, or encourage others to swim or plunge at the Avalon Gathering. Attendance is not compulsory to participate in the Challenge and is not a condition of fundraising or donating.

2. Key roles

Pony Rider creates and organises the Campaign and is responsible for participant registration, Campaign pages, communications, creative content and delivery of the Avalon Gathering.
AMCS is the fundraising beneficiary of the Campaign, and is not the organiser, co-host, venue operator, water-safety provider or event-services provider for the Challenge or Avalon Gathering.
Raisely is the third-party platform used for registration, team and fundraising pages.

During the fundraising, AMCS's Stripe payment account will be connected to the fundraising pages to process voluntary one-off donations made through those pages. Authorised Pony Rider staff will retain Campaign Admin and People Admin access to manage the Campaign, participant information and communications.
First Plunge is intended to be a recurring Pony Rider initiative. Future campaigns may support AMCS again or another aligned organisation. Nothing in these Terms creates a permanent or exclusive association between First Plunge and AMCS.

3. Registration and eligibility

Registration is free.

Fundraising, donating and attending the Avalon Gathering are optional.
You may register as an individual, a team member, a team leader or an authorised representative of an organisation.
You must provide accurate, current information and must not impersonate another person, register someone without authority or use the Campaign unlawfully.

By registering, you agree to receive communications reasonably required to administer First Plunge. Consent to future Pony Rider marketing will be requested separately and providing that consent is optional.
Pony Rider may refuse or cancel a registration where, in its opinion, a person's conduct is unsafe, unlawful, misleading, offensive, threatening, or otherwise inconsistent with these Terms.

You acknowledge and agree that your participation in the Campaign is voluntary and that you are not entitled to any fees, reimbursement of expenses, costs, or other benefits arising from or in connection with your participation in the Campaign.

4. Children and young people

First Plunge is not designed for or promoted to children under 10, and Pony Rider does not encourage children under 10 to undertake the Challenge.

A participant under 18 may participate only with the informed consent and active supervision of a parent or legal guardian. The parent or guardian must decide whether participation is appropriate, accept these Terms on the young person's behalf and remain responsible for the young person's location, health, safety, conduct and fundraising activity.
Pony Rider, AMCS, team leaders, venue personnel and Campaign volunteers do not provide childcare or assume responsibility for supervising children.

5. The self-directed Challenge

The Challenge is entirely self-directed. Each participant chooses whether, where and how to participate, including the location, date, time, conditions, distance and type of activity. Pony Rider and AMCS do not inspect, approve, organise, supervise or control those choices.

Before each activity, you must:

• Assess your health, swimming ability, experience, equipment, chosen location and conditions.
• Check weather, tides, currents, water quality, access rules, warning signs and local advice.
• Follow closures and directions from lifeguards, land managers, venue operators and emergency services.
• Avoid participating alone where it may be unsafe and never enter closed or prohibited areas or trespass.
• Choose a safer alternative, such as a supervised pool or plunge bath, when open water is unsuitable.
• Stop immediately and seek assistance if you feel unwell, unsafe, distressed or unable to continue.
• Seek appropriate medical advice before participating if a health condition, injury, pregnancy, medication or other concern may be affected by swimming, cold water or immersion.

You must not participate while affected by alcohol, illegal drugs or another substance that may impair judgement or physical ability. Pony Rider does not provide medical advice, lifeguards, water-safety supervision or on-site support for any Challenge activity.

Participating in the Challenge is voluntary and at your own risk. You acknowledge and agree that neither Pony Rider nor AMCS will be responsible or liable for any loss, damage, claim, expense, injury, or cost incurred by you as a result of participating in the Challenge.

6. Team and Team Leaders

Team participation is intended to encourage community connection and shared fundraising. Joining a team does not reduce a participant's individual responsibility for their activity, safety, conduct and compliance with these Terms.

• A team leader may invite participants, establish or administer the team fundraising page and coordinate team communications.
• A team leader is not an employee, agent, contractor or authorised representative of Pony Rider or AMCS and cannot make commitments or statements on their behalf.
• A team leader does not supervise adult team members and is not responsible for deciding whether another adult can participate safely.
• A team name, page or communication must not be unlawful, offensive, misleading or damaging to the Campaign, Pony Rider or AMCS.
• Team leaders must not pressure, harass or mislead anyone into participating, fundraising or donating.

7. Independently hosted kickoff gatherings

Participants may organise their own informal kickoff gathering. These gatherings are independently arranged and are not organised, approved, supervised or insured by Pony Rider or AMCS. Telling Pony Rider about a gathering does not make it an official Pony Rider or AMCS event.

The person arranging an independent gathering is responsible for:

• Selecting an appropriate venue and activity and conducting their own risk assessment.
• Obtaining any required permissions, permits, licences and insurance.
• Complying with local laws, venue rules, safety requirements and emergency directions.
• Providing accurate information and ensuring children are supervised by their parent or guardian.
• Not representing themselves as an employee, agent or authorised representative of Pony Rider or AMCS.
• Not charging entry, collecting cash donations, engaging suppliers or entering agreements in Pony Rider's or AMCS's name without prior written approval.

8. The Avalon Gathering

The Avalon Gathering is an indoor campaign information and group meditation session held in a hired room at Avalon Surf Life Saving Club. An AMCS representative will introduce the marine conservation work supported through donations received during the First Plunge campaign, followed by a group meditation led by Tom Carroll.

The Avalon Gathering does not include an organised, supervised or encouraged swim, plunge or other water activity.
You must follow venue rules and reasonable directions from Pony Rider, venue staff and emergency personnel. You are solely responsible for taking reasonable care of your health, belongings and safety, as well as the safety of others.

A parent or guardian must supervise any person under 18 attending with them.
Pony Rider may refuse entry or ask a person to leave for unsafe, intoxicated, threatening, disruptive or inappropriate conduct.
If an attendee independently chooses to enter the beach, ocean pool or any other water before, during or after the Avalon Gathering, that activity is outside the organised event and is not organised, supervised, promoted or encouraged by Pony Rider or AMCS.

9. Fundraising pages and participant obligations

You may create an individual, team or organisation fundraising page through the official First Plunge campaign page on Raisely, an online fundraising platform designed for charities and nonprofits to build customised donation pages, run peer-to-peer campaigns, manage ticket sales, and launch branded campaign websites.
Setting up a fundraising page or making a donation is voluntary and is not a requirement for participation in the Campaign. You may participate in the Campaign without creating a fundraising page or making a donation.

If you decide to create a fundraising page, you must:

• Provide accurate information and use only approved First Plunge and AMCS messaging.
• Make clear that donations are voluntary and one-off and respect a refusal to donate or a request not to receive further solicitations.
• Not make misleading, exaggerated or unapproved statements about Pony Rider, AMCS, conservation outcomes, tax deductibility or how funds will be used.
• Not offer prizes, raffles, competitions, products or services in exchange for donations without prior written approval and any required authority.
• Not collect donations into a personal or business account, deduct expenses or commissions, or collect cash in Pony Rider's or AMCS's name without written approval.
• Comply with applicable laws, these Terms and Raisely's platform requirements.

Pony Rider may edit, suspend or remove a fundraising page that contains inaccurate, unlawful, unsafe, offensive or unapproved content.

10. Donations and use of funds

All public donations are voluntary and one-off, processed through AMCS's connected Stripe account and paid directly to AMCS. Pony Rider does not receive, hold or distribute donated funds and does not receive a fee, commission or percentage of donations.
Pony Rider's fundraising target is $25,000.

This target is indicative only and does not constitute a guarantee, commitment, or stated objective. If the amount raised is greater or less than $25,000, registrants or donors are not entitled to any distribution of excess funds or any refund of donations made.
Donations are intended to support AMCS's work safeguarding critical marine places, including marine parks and sanctuaries. Funds may also contribute to the administration and operational capability required by AMCS to deliver that work.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, donations are not restricted exclusively to one AMCS project.
AMCS is responsible for donation receipts, refunds, chargebacks, tax-deductibility enquiries, fund administration and confirmed fundraising figures. Any public total is preliminary until confirmed by AMCS, and relevant payment-processing fees may be deducted before net funds are available to AMCS.

11. Raisely Ownership, access and handover

During active fundraising, AMCS will control and administer the First Plunge campaign page on Raisely, and will connect its Stripe account to enable donations to be processed and paid directly to AMCS. Authorised Pony Rider staff will operate Campaign content, participant communications, Campaign Data and the connected Pony Rider domain.

After fundraising, refunds and agreed reporting are complete, AMCS shall remove its Stripe connection and return control and administration of the First Plunge campaign page to Pony Rider. AMCS remains responsible for financial records it is legally required to retain. Use of Raisely and Stripe is also subject to the notices and terms of those providers.

12. Participant conduct and removal

You must not use First Plunge or a Campaign page to publish, upload, communicate or promote material that:

• Is false, misleading, defamatory, deceptive, unlawful, threatening, abusive or discriminatory.
• Harasses, pressures or exploits another person.
• Infringes another person's intellectual property, privacy, publicity or image rights.
• Depicts unsafe conduct as recommended, supervised or endorsed by Pony Rider or AMCS.
• Promotes an unrelated business, cause or fundraising activity without approval.
• Includes identifiable content about a child without appropriate parent or guardian consent.

Pony Rider may remove content or suspend or remove a participant, team, team leader, host or fundraising page where it reasonably believes these Terms have been breached or continued involvement creates a safety, legal, privacy or reputational risk. Removal does not reverse donations already made to AMCS.

13. Participant content, photography and filming

Participants are encouraged, but not obliged, to document their participation in the Challenge and may tag @pony_rider and use #FirstPlunge. Before posting or submitting an image, video, reflection, or other content (Content), you must have the right to share that Content and obtain permission from each identifiable person depicted in the Content before sharing it.

A parent or guardian must consent before identifiable content involving a person under 18 is submitted or featured.
If you upload Content to a First Plunge page, directly submit it to Pony Rider, or publicly post it using both @pony_rider and #FirstPlunge, you grant Pony Rider a non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, worldwide, and irrevocable licence to reproduce, repost and use that Content for the administration, promotion, marketing, advertising, and reporting of the First Plunge campaign, including any future First Plunge campaigns. You retain ownership of your Content.
You may contact Pony Rider to request whether it can stop future use of submitted Content.

Pony Rider at its sole discretion agree to your request, although material already printed, published or produced may not always be capable of being recalled, and it may not always be practicable for us to recall it.
General photography or filming may occur at the Avalon Gathering. Pony Rider will provide reasonable notice and, where practicable, a way to tell event staff that you do not wish to be photographed.

Specific consent will be sought before using a detailed participant story, attributed quote or prominently identifiable image as a feature or case study.
You will not be entitled to any fee or remuneration if you consent to appear in any photography or filming at the Avalon Gathering, and you will not have any rights in relation to any photography or filming in which you appear.

14. Intellectual Property

The First Plunge name, the campaign line "A Collective Plunge from Peak to Sea", logos, campaign concept, creative assets and materials (Campaign Materials) are owned by Pony Rider or used with permission. AMCS names, logos and supplied materials remain the property of AMCS.

You may use any approved Campaign Materials made available by us solely to participate in and promote your involvement in First Plunge. You must not alter any logos, create merchandise, register names or accounts using Campaign Materials, use Campaign Materials for unrelated commercial purposes, or imply any official sponsorship, agency, or employment relationship without our written approval.
Your right to use any Campaign Materials will automatically cease upon the expiry of the Campaign, your withdrawal from the Campaign, or the cancellation or termination of your participation in the Campaign, whichever occurs first.

15. Privacy and Communications

Pony Rider collects and manages participants' personal information in accordance with our Privacy Statement, available at [Insert link].

16. Risk Acknowledgement

Swimming, plunging, cold-water exposure and activities in natural environments involve inherent and unpredictable risks, including slippery surfaces, waves, tides, currents, sudden weather changes, cold shock, hypothermia, marine animals, submerged objects, contamination, injury, illness, permanent disability, drowning, or death.

Emergency assistance may be delayed or unavailable.
You voluntarily accept the risks associated with your chosen participation. Pony Rider and AMCS do not guarantee the safety, suitability, supervision or condition of any location selected by a participant. First Plunge is not an emergency-monitoring service and does not track participant locations. In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000) or the appropriate local emergency service.

17. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Pony Rider nor AMCS is jointly or severally liable for any injury, illness, death, loss, damage, delay, cost, or additional expense arising from or in connection with a participant's independent Challenge choices, an independently hosted gathering, any water activity outside the indoor Avalon Gathering, failure to follow applicable warnings or these Terms, or the acts or omissions of another participant, host, team leader or third party.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Pony Rider is not responsible or liable for any loss or damage arising from attendance at the Avalon Gathering, except to the extent such loss or damage is directly attributable to Pony Rider's negligence, breach of these Terms, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies a guarantee, right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified under the Australian Consumer Law or other applicable law. Each participant remains responsible for their own actions, and for loss or damage they cause.

18. Merchandise

First Plunge merchandise is sold separately and is not a condition of registration, participation, fundraising or donation. Purchases are subject to Pony Rider's usual sale terms and do not constitute a donation to AMCS unless expressly stated at the time of purchase.

19. Changes, cancellation and force majeure

Pony Rider may change, suspend, postpone or cancel the Avalon Gathering or modify Campaign dates, communications or non-essential features because of safety concerns, venue availability, legal or regulatory requirements, public-health requirements, severe weather, platform issues or circumstances beyond its reasonable control. Where reasonably possible, material changes will be communicated through email, social media or the Campaign page.
Pony Rider will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage arising from any change, suspension, postponement or cancellation of the Avalon Gathering or the Campaign.
Because registration and the Avalon Gathering are free, no registration refund applies. Donations already paid to AMCS are administered by AMCS, and any donation refund request will be referred to AMCS.

20. General and contact

These Terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. If a provision is void or unenforceable, it will be severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder will continue. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of that right.
Campaign, registration and participant enquiries: customerservice@ponyrider.com.au.
Donation, receipt, refund, chargeback and tax-deductibility enquiries should be directed to AMCS using the contact details shown on the donation receipt or fundraising page.

21. Registration acknowledgements

Mandatory participant acknowledgement:

"I have read and agree to the First Plunge Participant, Campaign and Event Terms and Conditions and acknowledge the First Plunge Privacy Collection Notice. I understand that any swim or plunge is voluntary, self-directed and undertaken at my own risk."

Additional acknowledgement for a participant under 18:

"I am the participant's parent or legal guardian. I consent to their participation, accept these Terms on their behalf and remain responsible for determining and providing the supervision required."

Separate optional Pony Rider marketing consent:

"Yes, I would like to receive news, offers, campaigns and updates from Pony Rider. I understand that I can unsubscribe at any time."
Last updated: 6 August 2026.