Interested to get experiences from everyone on different boards types.

There is several options in the market at present from traditional custom surfboard types through to
full sandwich timber laminate carbon options and some in between.

My thoughts are you want the lightest stiffest board that transfers as much energy through to the foil as possible.
This gives you the most efficient pumping combined with the least swing weight and best paddling board.

First would be the full carbon pvc sandwich eps timber laminate board ( ie sunova, Naish ultra carbon,etc )
Next would be same pvc sandwich construction but not full carbon just some carbon reinforcement strips ( slingshot, etc )

Then you go to timber laminate with some carbon strips but no pvc sandwich ( like Fanatic ) these boards are light.

Along the same lines I think the custom boards like Amos and DC offer light weight vacuum bagged boards with or without full carbon and not sure if they have timber laminates as well.

Cheapest option are PU blanks with polyester glassing , still work but ding easily and have flex which is not desirable ( Naish PU range )

Interested to hear how durable the custom boards have been compared to the production types etc

Hey kobo, all the boards are pretty good these days - you just need to find a board that has the design features you require & in your size. Thats where custom boards shine & why I went this way.
If you were going to kite on it, I'd go Sunova or similar.