I can remember the first carbon rods hitting the market back in the 70s, they wre fly rods and very expensive, we always though they would never produce carp rods in carbon because of the price and the fact that our rods were static and now hand held most of the time, I stuck it out with my Jim Gibbinson Cloopers and (Red) Gerry Savage rods for a while longer, until Terry Eustace brought out his T24s, we also had Northwest SS4s, Carbon carp rods came out just after that, must have been the late 70s, cant remember my first though although I think it may have been Bouron?