Uncle Jaffa is 62 so don't use the I'm getting older card
Short answer YES.
Long answer below
Surftech boards are not plastic. (plastic are usually Bic bottom of the range and NSP boards at the cheap end of the scale).
The surf tech are epoxy, glassed differently and still have a inner core of a different foam, if you bought a board of similar dimensions to your current favourite, you would find the float about the equivalent of a normal board of about a foot longer much better paddling, a little harder duckdiving and you definitely need to keep the drive on going around the whitewater other than that ride as normal.
I have several surftech boards in my quiver I am happy with them and they are my "short" boards being 8ft instead of 9ft+ and they float the same!
I've taken up troll hunting just for fun, instead of a rifle I'll just use a pun! 冲浪爷爷