Fishing with stratosdadri yesterday and his spinning reel (out of the blue) became stiff when you first start reeling.  This happened to me when I dunked a president once but it worked itself out.  He had been using the reel all morning, and the reel is new this year.

Suggestions?

What's the reel model???

Sounds like something is binding the crank, or the rotor. Make sure you don't have any grass or line in the crank support bearings or behind the rotor of the reel.

I would remove the reel from the rod and start by removing the spool looking for anything that can bind the rotation of the rotor under the spool. Then I would remove the crank and look at the bearings on both sides, again looking for anything that could bind the bearings up, sand, dirt, grass, etc. I wouldn't recommend that you remove the rotor because of the AR assemblies that are underneath it on some reel models.

If you don't find anything in these areas that might be binding the reel up then I would recommend you send it to the factory, or return it to the retailer.

Good Luck & Tight Lines!!!