yes nebbian, you are very right with this... i have lost count of how many of these booms i have broken in the past..... but i will stick with carbon.
hmm... always seems to be the heads cracking.... am now looking towards the loft carbon and the KA carbon.
what makes it really hard is that i am sitting here looking at 2 brand new alloy gun freeride booms. the excellent guys at windsurfingsales in an effort to support the windwanderers this year have donated 2 gun booms and a loft quiver bag for give aways.

so maybe you will be the lucky person to get one!