My understanding is that the new resin from 3M is a significant advancement in rod manufacturing. The most important factor though is the rod action so you need to separate the manufacturing process from the rod design process. Frist make sure the rod action is what you want then decide if the new manufacturing is worth the extra cost.
Other rod manufacturers such a G Loomis and Hardy and Greys are using the new resin for their rods, so the technology is not limited to St. Croix.
You can read about it here and make up your own mind.
http://www.sportfishingmag.com/techn...000085153.html
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...client_id=5312
http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...client_id=5312
Regards,
Silver
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy