Broadreach Summer Adventures Reviews

My personal group of people on my Broadreach trip was really fun and interesting! Wouldn't trade the experience for the world. I got to live on board a SAILBOAT! HOW COOL IS THAT?!? But seriously, you get to become really close friends with everyone on board and get fully emersed in the experience. Boat life becomes you and your scuba course work becomes actual useful information. The wildlife, the people, the setting and the overall vibe all factor in to come out as the perfect experience. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

The Fiji shark studies Broad Reach trip was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I learned how to live in small quarters with quite a few people. I learned the average house skills like cooking, cleaning, and staying organized. However, I also learned all about sharks and diving as well. During this trip you get the real idea of how Fijians live. Your diving with the amazing B.A.D. Staff at least 4 hours a day to see sharks or super cool coral. I gained so many friends that I still keep in contact with after the trip and I’m actually planning on doing a get together with them for thanksgiving!!! This experience has changed my view on life in so many good ways and I would recommend this trip to everyone.

This 12 day trip was the most incredible experience I could have ever imagined. I made friends for life and over came so many of my fears. The bond I made with the instructors is something I had never experienced before, they were unbelievably supportive and fun to be around. The mix of learning about new topics and having fun swimming around with your friends is an incredible part of the adventure. The instructors were so supportive and always prioritised the kids safety and fun while teaching us to dive.

This was not the adventure of a lifetime. That’s what I have to keep telling myself, because to acknowledge that I’ll never experience anything like my Broadreach trip again would send me into a bottomless pit of depression.
I had found this program 3 years prior and immediately started saving up and dreaming about the trip. I was incredibly fortunate to receive a generous scholarship from broadreach that helped greatly with the costs. My only concern going into the program was that it would be impossible to live up to the expectations I had built over the 1,075 day wait. Somehow, it still exceeded them. Waking up on the island was a dream come true, and never in my life have I been more present in the moment. Learning to SCUBA Dive was such an unbelievable experience: I still picture all the amazing animals I saw underwater and am counting the days until I can dive again.
The people there were also absolutely amazing, and we still talk nearly every day. I never felt judged by my peers, and Broadreach makes it so easy to bond and make lifetime friends. The instructors were all great and I found the classes fascinating. We were able to learn so much in such a short time, but it is all very manageable and low-stress.
Getting to work with local conservation efforts was very rewarding, and I still can’t fully believe that I’m certified as a coral restoration diver now. If I weren’t aging out, I would absolutely do another trip. To anyone who is even slightly considering broadreach: go for it. You will not regret it.

Broadreach is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The independence I have gained from it is insane. The people that i met are my best friends. I have done 3 trips so far and each one is so super special. I am always so eager to learn more about my peers and just about the world around us in general. It is such incredible experience that i would recommend to absolutely anyone. I will finish the rest of my high school creer doing broadreach and then i will be an instructor to make un impact on other kids like the impact the trip gave me. I Love You BR!!

My children all did the sailing/diving combination during the summer of 2022. It was a wonderful adventure for them. They flew to St. Maarten without hovering parents and got see new places on their own. They returned home with scuba and sailing certifications that they're proud of. My younger two had some difficulty with several of the other campers on their trip, but I spoke with Broadreach mngt after they returned home and think it was a one time issue.

Two out of three are going back in 2023 for more diving. My oldest is aging out, unfortunately.

My daughter participated in the 12-day scuba and sailing trip in the summer of 2022. She had never been away from us for longer than a few days so this was a new challenge for her. This trip provided her with an experience she will never forget and she is excited to be able to participate in another trip this summer. As first timers, we had a lot of questions that were quickly answered by the Broadreach team. The team was helpful from start to finish and we were very impressed with how well they communicated with us. Our daughter not only learned to sail and got her scuba certification- she also learned invaluable lessons from traveling on her own, living aboard a sailboat, cooking her own meals, and forming relationships with her crew mates. She got to see parts of the world not visible from land and even pushed herself to complete- and then fall in love with- night diving! We are so thankful we came across Broadreach and can’t recommend the program enough!

My time with Broadreach was such a unique opportunity to not only learn how to scuba dive and how to sail, but also to learn and grow as an individual. I was pushed to develop leadership skills and life skills that I have been able to apply in other aspects of my life. It was such a unique experience making friendships with people that I lived so closely and learned along side with. We still send snail mail to each other to this day! While living on a boat, we were fully immersed with ocean ecosystems, which inspired me to live more consciously and pursue a degree in sustainability.

Message to Broad Reach
HYGIENE:
First of all, I wanted to thank Broad Reach for the opportunities that were presented during the duration of my 12 day sailing and scuba trip. Sitting here today, I am appreciative that I was able to experience the good and the bad. Unfortunately, the cons deceivingly out weighed the pros. My goal is to keep my review as short as possible, because I am sure that I am not the only person that sees the astonishing amount of flaws fluent in Broad Reach. I chose to attend Broad Reach’s program in order to pursue exploring God’s creation and my interests. Each and every person had their own motives in why they wanted to attend. However, for the people I talked to, each one of them expressed their concerns about the health and well-being of every participant.
Approaching and boarding the boat I was highly impressed with how clean and organized everything seemed. Far above my perception, I was rudely awakened with the comment stated on the second day by one of my instructors; “It is Broad Reach, everything breaks”. At first the comment flew over my head and didn’t hold such magnitude. This was until the first occurrence of the human feces and the sewage problem. I speak for everyone when I say it is our job take accountability; however, this was far to long for this to be a students problem. By the fourth day, the smell aboard was horrific to the point where we no longer could stay in our rooms for more than 2 minutes. The smell from the cabin had traveled to the saloon. To put yourselves in our shoes, imagine after a long day, you sit down to eat dinner and all you can fathom and smell is human waste. This is the last thing my parents want to hear and I want to experience after paying thousands of dollars. The sewage problem became so repetitive to the point were one of the instructors had to blow the sewage out of the pipe with an air tank. Like seriously?? These instructors didn’t sign up to blow human feces out of a sewage pipe. Then for me to have to go into my cabin room (shared amongst 5 girls) and clean a pipe leak consisting of a mixture of menstruation blood, human feces and urine off the wall is beyond me. Since there is only one bed for five girls you then have to become creative with how you will sleep. Majority of the boat would sleep on the floors of the kitchen. Which is fine, until you realize earlier that day there was human feces and sewage water all over it. Not once was that floor thoroughly disinfected. With all honesty, since this was part of my Broad Reach experience maybe you should include this in the description before people sign up. This is indefinitely known as false advertisement.

FOOD:
Changing paths, the ratio between the amount of calories I burned and consumed is drastically higher. I woke up hungry and went to sleep hungry every single day. Scientifically men need to consume more calories than woman (9 men and 6 total women on the boat), so the men needed to consume more of the food. I seriously felt as if I was slowly deteriorating. For the last 12 days I practically lived off of turkey and cheese sandwich’s, Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches. Unfortunately, I can’t recall the the last meal I ate on the boat that consisted of a fair balance of protein, starch’s, and vegetables. Everyone on the boat was constantly hungry, tired, and deprived of valuable nutrients. There were multiple days we I ate Nutella(purchased by one the students) for breakfast and lunch. I skipped breakfast many days because eating off-brand fruity pebbles and warm milk would make me feel more tired than just not eating at all. Three days in a row I vividly remember not eating breakfast. On day 12, all we had left was cheese puffs and stale cheerios for breakfast. One of the instructor’s refused to let us go off the docked boat to get a meal, which resulted in people leaving to eat a some-what nutritious meal because of how deprived of food they were. Many people came up to me and told me how bad there stomach and head was hurting from eating carb filled food for 12 days straight. I experienced headaches like nothing before, because of YOUR chosen diets. It doesn’t take a genius to incorporate nutrients in our daily meals. There can always be room for improvement, but the first step in growing is taking accountability and clearly Broad Reach didn’t do so.

SAFETY:
Wow, I don’t even know where to start or what to say that can compensate for the amount of times laziness outweighed the well-being of all 12 persons. The amount of times my trip was conflicted against or put at risk because of the pitiful, conscious, and congruent knowledge the instructors held was astonishing. Lets start off with my personal favorite when during our sail back from Saba the girls cabin ceiling fell. Instead of the ceiling being removed from our room for safety reasons, the instructors decided the leave it in there. Even better, after saying for hours they will take it out, they decide the place it in the walk way between our room and there room. This caused us to not be able to close our door for the duration of the trip(even when changing). This perfectly leads me to my other problem. A roll of paper towels was left in our room after cleaning the bathroom floors. As instructed, I was told to wipe the counters down so I went down to our bathroom to grab the paper towels. As I proceeded to step into the bathroom and reached for the paper towels, the bathroom door completely collapsed on me. Yes, at first it was funny; however, we need to look a the potential harm this could’ve caused. If it hit me any harder I could have been left with an injury that could have been prevented if the screw in the door was screwed on correctly. I am completely aware that these boats are not Broad Reach’s, they belong to Dream Yacht. However, these boats are a huge representation of your company. Ergo, you should be completely aware of the recurring problems. I know these problems are reoccurring because an instructor had passed down this information. Read as follows: “We submit list’s regarding the problems but they don’t ever fix them and just send the next group on the boat while knowing about the problems.” Is that how you want your company to be represented? I’ve been on this earth for 16 years and never have I ever heard any company display such disregard to safety, especially with children.

DISREGARD FOR VALUABLE HUMAN LIFE:
I chose to attend this trip with two of my best friends; whom I care about deeply. Seeing the negligent circumstances my friend was put in was pathetic. I believe it was the sixth day of our trip, when my friend had lost the ability to breath. We were about 40 feet underwater when her air had ran out. There was a malfunction in the SPG. One moment it said 500 PSI left and the next it was 0. There was no time to respond in the life-threatening situation. Fortunately, she was able to do an emergency dissent; however as she reached the surface, she was left with a bloody nose and felt an extreme loss of oxygen. She stated as follows, “I felt really lightheaded as I got to the surface and I realized I had a bloody nose. It wasn’t till one hour did I feel ‘normal’ again”. I am fully aware that accidents happen but this happened to her twice back to back. My friend had consulted with one of the scuba instructors to figure out why she always feels as if she’s gasping for air. She had told her two things, “you are breathing too much” and that “the valve was closed alittle much and/or you had opened it”. That was clearly not the case, and there was more to the story but she was too lazy to handle it. Becuase of her lack and disregard to human safety my friends life was at risk. This is another prime example of child reckless endangerment. I am truly appalled that I would even have to include this in my review. Coming on to this trip an individual, (from Broad Reach head quarters in Raleigh, North Carolina) explicitly told me safety is their number one priority and never to question their safety because we will always be in good hands and they are very proud of their plans they put in place to keep each one of their students healthy. I don’t think this instance backs up that claim extremely well. Maybe the individual should rethink your boastful and overly confident claim before stating it.

TIME AND PLACE:
In the last decade, politics have had a huge uprising and finds itself in a lot of conversations, in our present day society. However, there is a time and place for everything and a boat with a bunch of children on it is not a place that it should be occurring on. There was a handful of times where political and religious topics were brought up. No matter what side of the spectrum you stand on, there should never be bashing of another side. I, myself, identify as a Christian and there was multiple times where a student would say “F**k Jesus” on the boat. The counselors would hear it but not do anything about it. This boat is meant to be an inclusive space where people all around the world come with different nationalities, races, religious backgrounds, ethnicities, and all can be treated as one. Unfortunately for me, I did not always feel as if my background morals were being respected. In addition, one of the counselors had brought up how there are many shootings in America. That is true, but you do not bash one’s country and talk down upon it because of an issue that has nothing to do with what I signed up for. Again, there’s a time and place for everything, political/religious conversations have nothing to do with scuba diving and sailing, ergo they should’ve never occurred. The conversation should’ve been shut down right away to avoid offending someone. Unfortunately, the lack of disregard to human morals was absurd.

PRIVACY:
The female scuba instructor had no regard for peoples private information. There were multiple times when private information such as prescriptions and medical records, were left out. They were not put away in sight, instead, they would sit out and completely open in front of the whole boat. This is extremely disgraceful that the public had access and insight to people medical prescriptions and records.
Throughout my review, I try my best to stay consistent and only present the facts. I am writing this so other parents and children can obtain insight on the disgraceful occurrences that happen when participating in a Broad Reach trip. I genuinely want the best for each and every individual and I do not think by participating in a Broad Reach trip will account for your valuable and worthy life. I hope you take in my review with great consideration. Lastly, for you Broad Reach, DO BETTER.

My daughter just returned from the 12 Day Scuba and Sailing Exploration aboard The Trinidad with three instructors. I want to warn others to consider the following issues before they book this trip.

COMMUNICATION:
About a day before the trip we received an email letting us know that the sims card would be removed from the kids phones when they arrived. I understand the need to limit cell phone addiction BUT not being able to communicate with my daughter was not something that I expected. This info was not communicated to us before we booked the trip and that is not right!

SCUBA SAFETY:
My daughter contacted me by about the fifth or sixth day to report to me that she had run out of air during a dive because her tank had a leak and that it caused her nose to gush blood. I was very concerned and alarmed, so I contacted the North Carolina Office and directly emailed, the address recommended for emergencies and for contacting the BR officials that were with the kids in St.M. It took the North Carolina Office over 24 hours to get back to me with a lame message that denied what my daughter told me and NO ONE ANSWERED BACK MY EMAIL!!! The folks that were supposed to be my emergency contact did not even bother to contact me back to answer my concerns about my daughters scuba incident and the safety of the scuba equipment!!!

FOOD:
There simply was NOT enough food for these active teenagers. The kids were always hungry and, although they had a remote storage area that my daughter said was FULL of food, these kids were not given more to eat. They were weak and had headaches because of food depravation. They bought nutella with their own money and resorted to eating that junk out of extreme hunger. One instructor told the kids that any food that they bought on land had to be shared with everyone, which I agree about, BUT she would have food that she claimed was totally hers and no one was to touch it. She even keep cold drinks for herself when the boat ran out of drinking water! Yes, you read that right- they ran out of water!!!

WATER:
We were not warned before this trip that EXTREME water conservation was practiced and that if they kids ran out of water they would be left without ANY until they could refill. Now, I agree to teaching kids about water conservation BUT not to the detriment of their health and safety. They should have been supplied with as much fresh drinking water, as needed, without question!!! Dehydration is a serious health issue that Broadreach did not care about. An instructor told the kids that they could refill the water but he did not feel like doing it because of how long it took. They kids all said that they would help since they were soo thirsty but he still made them wait until the NEXT DAY for water.

TOILETS:
The toilets backed up raw sewage all over the floors and because of conserving water, they only used a bit of ocean water to splash it away. It was not cleaned up or properly sanitized and the girls were told by an instructor that they were no longer allowed to shave because of the probability of them getting Staph if they got cut. The kids were then told that from now on they were not allowed to use the toilets to defecate. If they had to do that, they were expected to jump into the water and defecate there- they called it a "water dookie". So gross!! However, one instructor didn't abide by her own rules and would stink up the girls bathroom everyday.

LANGUAGE:
An instructor screamed at the kids if she heard them using foul language but, hypocritically, she used foul language while telling them that they couldn't.

INSTRUCTORS:
One instructor is only 20 years old and does not seem mature or responsible enough to handle being in charge of 12 kids.
Two other instructors were liked by the kids, which seemed to anger the other instructor and make her more spiteful.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS:
One instructor brought up social and political issues that were inappropriate in this situation and no one appreciated her opinions. If she does not eat fish or meat, that is her business and she should not be scornful of what the kids choose to eat. She also should not be making comments about the parents of these kids and their choices and lifestyles.

MEDICATION:
An instructor was in charge of dispensing the medication to the kids that needed it and she was very neglectful with this duty. She forgot to do it so often that she just put the meds out and told the kids to do it themselves.

SANITATION:
This boat was filthy and contaminated and the only cleaning was done by the kids themselves on the last day. I'm willing to bet that BR will not properly disinfect and sanitize this boat before the next group boards.

OVERALL:
My daughter said that she did have a good time because she totally loved all the other kids. They truly bonded and got through the hunger, thirst and filthy conditions with each other and their support and laughter. They made the best of the situation but these issues need to be addressed by BR!!!