Select to expand quotegeoITA said..
My old Cobra built boards ('97 - '00 RRD) showed super light weight and very good strength. Today I would not buy anything from Cobra.
Same thing is happening with masts. Once we had 60% carbon mast around 2.0 kg and they didn' break that easily. Today we have 100% masts at the same weight, and they break.
Yes! Bring back the wood construction Starboard! Lovely smooth to ride and sooooo durable!
I have living proof of it. I have a 'Wood' IS87 from around 2008 that has had a very hard life for the past 10 years. It's my most used board. Took knocks very well. Only one crack ever developed last year in the middle of the deck just on front of the back footsteps. Easily fixed and didn't take water. Sure, the wood discoloured a bit and all the powdery 'paint' on the bottom oxidised and was mostly sanded off, but the board still has the original rocker and within a 100 gms of the new weight. I like it so much I recently bought another identical one in hardly used condition. 
I have done a number of GPS PB's on that board. It does not loose much at all, all round, on current designs, although I am sure the new ones do better in some areas, with the notable exception of longevity. I would rather have a sound board that lasts and is 500cm to 1KG heaver. 200gm weight savings are all in the sailors head and are dry glass voids in the hull.
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That said, my Carbon art CA40 speed board (not full carbon) is about the same age and it too is completely sound. It been halfway around the world in planes and crossed the country numerous times, rattling around in my trailer. It's been pounded down speed runs all over Australia ranging from smooth to 'Holy Crap' choppy. All it has to show for that is a few chips in the paint, and some very all dents (filled and faired) on the bottom from the one time I had to abandon it and it was pounded by waves on the far shore at Sandy Point for 24 hrs. 
