D,
The teacher being taught.
You may need to slow down your casting on the old glass rod. Newbies tend to be anxious and cast more quickly and that's why your instructor's (stiffer) graphite rod seem to fit your casting style at this time.
Oh, 35ft on the first go is pretty impressive and perfect distance for our sport. As my 90 year-old fishing partner/mentor says "Never understood all this long distance casting. It's just more line in the water causing a slower hook-set which means the fish has more time to spit your fly out. The irony is the guy across the river from you is trying to cast to your side." Wise lesson!
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God Blesses!
A wing & a Prayer! ----*<(((><~ ~ ~ ~
Quinn
"I envy not him that eats better meat than I do, nor him that is richer, or that wears better clothes than I do; I envy nobody but him, and him only that catches more fish than I do." Izaak Walton
God Bless and Tight Lines ----*<(((>< ~ ~ ~