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Little Known Club On South Coast has Unique Admissions Test; You Must Visit All 8 Channel Islands

The South Coast is home to a club that’s open to everyone, but has a very unique membership test that can take years, and even decades to complete. In order to be a part of this club, you have to visit eight natural landmarks, some of which are easy to get to, and some are very difficult. It’s the “All Eight Club,” and to be a member, you need to have visited all eight of the Channel Islands.

Marla Daily founded the virtually unknown club, which has just ovcr 200 members. It’s easier said than done. Six of the islands are accessible to the public. But, the military manages two, San Clemente and San Nicholas Islands. So, to visit those islands, you have to be a volunteer for a conservation project.

Lauren Harold says that’s how she got to the final two islands on her list. She to part in a bird census on one of the military islands, and did some restoration work on the other island. August 8th was a big day for the All Eight Club. For the first time in a decade, they gathered for a lunch to swap stories.

They picked 8/8/18, because it's a day filled with eights. More than 50 people are on hand at the Carpinteria Lions Park Lodge. Peter Skyler says it took him decades to step on all eight islands. Tara Brown and her boyfriend Paul Petris says not only have they visited all eight islands, they’ve moved into a new category, by trying to camp on all the islands.

Not everyone at the lunch is a full member yet. Justin Messina of Ventura is two island visits away from becoming a full “All Eight” member.

Members get a baseball cap, a triangular pennant, and a small triangular lapel pins imprinted with “All eight.” They items have eight stars on them representing each of the Channel Islands. But, members say the best thing is that sense of accomplishment knowing that you done something that only few people have done, and you’ve seen a part of nature few people will ever see.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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