A historical account by Jeff Fabiszewski, recorded November 3, 2026. This page preserves my recollections of Sol y Luna Kayak Fishing School in Matlacha, Florida, together with two photographs from my personal collection.
Between 2006 and 2008, Chrystal Murray, now Chrystal Murray Hadden, Greg Bowdish, and I created a kayak fishing program called Sol y Luna. We held it at the Sun and Moon Inn in Matlacha, where Curt Peer was an owner. These are details I remember as one of the people involved. The exact opening and closing dates remain to be established from original records.
July 23, 2006: the people in the photographs
I date both photographs on this page to July 23, 2006. They put faces and boats beside a program name that could otherwise slip out of the record. The uploaded copies contain no embedded capture date, so the date and the identifications below come from me.
In the group photograph, Greg Bowdish is at the left, wearing an orange hat and green shirt in a blue Ocean Kayak. The student in the foreground holds a snook. I am at the right in an orange hat and tan shirt, in a green Ocean Kayak Prowler. John Hadden is behind us. I have not identified the student by name. John’s presence in this photograph is recorded here without assigning him a program title or teaching role.
The second photograph shows Chrystal Murray by herself in a blue Ocean Kayak Prowler 13, with mangroves behind her and a paddle across her lap. Together, these images preserve some of the people and equipment associated with our program.
The Sun and Moon Inn in Matlacha
The inn was the setting for Sol y Luna in my recollection. A later, independent account helps establish the place and Curt’s connection to it. In his September 15, 2010 Anna Maria Island Sun column, “Late season tarpon action explodes in Matlacha,” Rusty Chinnis described staying at the Sun and Moon Bed and Breakfast and taking a sunset kayak outing with proprietor Curt Peer. The article listed the address as 3962 N.W. Pine Island Road, Matlacha, and the former website as sunandmoon.net.
That report appeared after the period covered here. It supports Curt’s association with the inn and kayaking, but does not document the Sol y Luna program or its founders.
Surviving references and the limits of the record
An older Liquid Rhythm Home article names “Sol y Luna Kayak Fishing School” among the programs where Sean Fitzgibbon and I participated as presenters or coaches. The page displays a December 29, 2007 publication date and a later revision date. Without an archived version, that displayed date does not establish when the reference was added. The passage describes participation and does not list the program’s founders.
Greg Bowdish’s own retrospective recalls meeting Curt Peer at the Sun and Moon Inn while developing his fishing guide business. It supplies useful context about Greg’s relationship with Curt and the inn. It should not be treated as independent confirmation of Sol y Luna’s dates or founding team.
A Baysider listing for the Sun and Moon Inn is retained here as an additional research lead. Its contents could not be retrieved during preparation of this page and have not been used to establish program details.
What still needs to be preserved
Original brochures, registration forms, correspondence, advertisements, schedules, and further photographs could help recover the program’s format, individual responsibilities, and exact dates. Those details remain open rather than being filled in from guesswork. The photographer for each image has not yet been identified.
This is a historical record, not an announcement of a currently operating school. The founding account and photograph identifications are my firsthand testimony. The linked sources provide supporting context, with their limits stated above. Further records and corrections can be offered through Liquid Rhythm Kayaking.
Small programs can disappear from view when a website closes or a box of photographs loses its names. Sol y Luna deserves to keep its people, its place, and what we can honestly remember.
