My co-angler is cheap, well kind of cheap. He will spend plenty of money, on "Vintage" fishing gear. Probably has close to a thousand rods and reels, not exaggerating at all here.
The problem I witness every week is how hard he has to cast to get any distance. In contrast, most of my gear is less than 5 years old, I have some high end rods that are older but my reels are all current. While he is swinging for the fences, I'm comfortably bombing my casts way past what he is able to do. Don't get me wrong, we aren't competing against each other, this is just what I have noticed over time.
Now he recently has developed a pain in his shoulder and elbow! He doesn't do manual labor for work. Casting when Fishing is by far the only thing remotely close to repetitive motion that he performs on a regular basis. I've tried to convince him to invest in at least some new reels and that once he tried one he would see the advantage of having some decent equipment. I even tried to get him to sell some of the "Vintage" gear to fund some new gear.
I've even tried letting him cast a couple of my better rigs. He just muttered "they are left handed", he casts right handed, sure he knows he can get them right handed, I guess it just feels weird casting right handed with the handle on the left when he tried it.
I was even able to find this:
"Frequent Improper Casting
One of the most common injuries known to anglers is shoulder pain. For veteran anglers, this is because of overuse and perhaps a lack of overall bodily strength. For new anglers, it might be because of the way they cast incorrectly without having the correct caster’s body. The repeated use of the shoulder without any casting success can cause trauma to the shoulder joints. This can accumulate faster than you think and might lead to rotator cuff injury, which is quite common among anglers.'
And not that he is casting improperly but it would seem to reason that having to exert more force when casting could have the same or similar effect as improper casting?
This guy is my best friend for life, we grew up together, known each other since we were about 12, and now in our later years we really enjoy our fishing and trips together even more. I would hate for him to get to the point of not being able to fish because of this.
What's my point?! Does anyone have any experience in this kind of situation or any data that I could share with him that might sway his mindset on buying some new equipment?
Thanks for any input provided.