Dilemma and hoping for brains trust assistance...assuming budget allows for carbon, wood/glass..etc construction.

I am hoping to buy a downwind/race style board. I don't intend to race and weight of board is not a major issue. I am a big fan of durability and something looking as good as it did a year after I bought it - I look after my gear. I have owned carbon based boards, bikes...etc previously and found durability to be somewhat of an issue ie. easily chipped, must be very careful transporting to prevent knocking and cracking etc. Generally the lighter something is the more fragile it tends to be.

Given the above from others experience, how have you found the durability of todays boards that have been made from carbon.

Cheers folks!

The JP pro & race boards are not carbon they are a mix of composites to give the strength and makes them very hard to ding. The surfing Sups although stiff still have torsion flex. Weight wise they are still very close to full carbon boards.

I've had similar experiences with highend carbon fibre sporting equipment and in my experience it really depends on the brand, design and manufacturing process as to whether the equipment is super light but fragile or a little heavier and more durable, as Piros said some manufacturers are now using a combination of materials to produce boards that are relatively light but much more durable than they once were.

Rob Stehlik from Blue Planet explains it quite well in this little vid from his YouTube channel. I've been riding his boards now for while, and while they're not the lightest boards in the industry they are certainly more durable than others I have ridden.

Ok my two cents. I have a carbon race board and I think it is worth the money, however, I paddle flat water almost exclusively with my race board (hey Canberra based so I have what I have). I presently have the Starboard Race in a 14footer. I tested the Starby hybrid carbon and although its almost as light I did notice the difference when trying to accelerate it from a standing start.

The question is would most people notice and I think the answer is no.

The second thing is surf sups, I have always had carbon and would have said it was a better construction, but I have just changed over to the wood HyperNut and found the weight difference in something so small to be so tiny (approx 500grams) that it is simply not noticeable at all. So once again would the average person notice the difference, I would say no.

The final thing is, you have to go a long way today to actually buy a crap board, if its a name brand or one of the site sponsors here the construction techniques used and the materials used are usually top rate, and even if there is a problem you can usually go back to the shop. This is the real secret I think, a relationship with your local shop is invaluable, the guys and girls that own and run these shops really do care about their customers.

Like I said my 2 cents worth

Thanks folks, it is an interesting discussion...carbon is an amazing material that features in so many high performance sports now days. As Rob says on the the video, it's egg shell qualities are a strong consideration when purchasing a board and ultimately high performance materials come at a cost & benefit in many ways.

Thanks, I think that has answered my board dilemmas....Naish Glide GS.

Like with every material, its really important how it is used.
I have seen carbon boards that I could easily dent with my thumb and ones that don,t give a sh#t if i,m trying tobreak my thumbs on them.
With my wave sups I found my carbon Starboards thougher and stronger as my AST and wood ones...

With 14ft boards I noticed like Greg that the lighter glassed ones are less stiff as the carbon ones.
A little give can ad some comfort to a board in chop but at the price of some speed/performance+ they are easier to dent on the deck because of the less stiff material.
In a perfect world I would have me made an custom raceboard made with the sandwich material and Dyneema they use on some windsurf gear.

I am 165 lbs and a very average paddler.
I find that 28~29 lbs was a sweet spot for me.
32 lbs and the weight penalty in acceleration and carrying around is just too large (outside strong wind downwind).
24 lbs and the $ penalty is too big. I am assuming that durability can also be an issue but I never owned a carbon only board to test this.

While I have limited experience with different constructions of different brand at different time, I find that the SB Carbon Glass (now Hybrid in 2016) and curiously the Naish 2011 "carbon" (i.e. the white Javelin...) seem to endure very well.
Jimmy Lewis construction might be the one that bring both attribute together (weight and durability) but they are not very popular around here so never had a chance to own one.
Of the boards that I found excellent but too heavy for my taste are the JP Australia Sporster (258L 33 lbs) in wood and the glide V2 GS.
Of the board that I found excellent but too fragile is the Bark Downwinder (275L 28 lbs). I just love the shape and to date it is likely my favourite board of all outside of the construction.
If I had a wish list out of our various boards, it would be the Bark Downwinder in SB Hybrid construction provided the construction doe s not change the attributes of the board on the water.

Good luck with the choice of your board. Regardless of your choice, most of us still look with envy at other boards all the time and 2016 seems like another great years with tons of exciting boards coming out :-)

There is carbon and there is carbon, just like there are cars and there are cars. The quality, strength/stiffness of carbon ranges widely, just as cars vary widely from cheap, gutless death traps to state of the art in safety, comfort, power & speed.

Resin systems vary more than carbon. Some use high strength/tough resins, while some use high stiffness resins. In the right combinations, a brilliant resin system and fibreglass can produce a product nearly as stiff as carbon using a poor/cheap resin system (this seems to be the choice of many manufacturers using carbon more as a marketing tool than embracing its qualities). Post cure the boards built with advanced resin systems at relatively low temperatures (50-60 deg) and the stiffness/toughness of the board skyrockets.

Board manufacturers are onto this with some making big steps forward and producing boards with lower carbon content, but maintaining or nearly maintaining the weight and stiffness benchmarks of 'carbon' boards.