My brother is an eye surgeon at Eye&Ear downtown. He stresses eye protection for fly fishermen. If you had seen what he has seen!
He told me that often it's not the fly that does the damage but the shards of glass. That's why I only wear polycarbonate, and have been a proponent of fishing the back cast for several years in a crosswind.
He also asked "what's that lure with the lead eyes?". >ugh<
Years ago I remember being on the side of a healthy discussion defending fishing the backward cast. Most of the rebuttal was against backward casting then (about 5 years ago?). Now it's common to see an entire row of anglers fishing their back casts. Years ago you used to hear >thwack< a lot when the fish were one way and the wind was coming over the casting shoulder. Now you don't hear the thuds and whacks very often, and when you do you know exactly why.
If you think about it, this is a major improvement in the way flyfishermen cope with wind.
KUDOS TO US!!!
BTW - There are certain aspects to backward casting that provide an advantage over forward casting.