hmmm. My arm doesn't even touch the grip when I cast, as far as I know. Maybe when I throw my 900xl next time I'll pay attention to what my arm's touchin. I'm building my 700M with 3 layers of corktape and an area about 9 inches up from the butt that's just 1 layer thick of corktape and then I've got shrink tubing over that area for the reel to sit in. Eric told me about this, it's supposed to lower the reel so that there's not as much of an angle going to the first guide, or the stripper guide. Plus it looks really cool :-). Hypalon is just soooo much heavier than cork tape. I had that experience on this rod. I put on some hypalon, then took it to Eric's and decided to take the hypalon back off and do it with corktape just because it's so much lighter, and more durable.
-Brian