5 year ago was roughly the time they were staging back on on the original mako and making what was initially the "Mako Wide" into the standard board we are getting today.As applies the latest board you are talking about. Lets go back five years and see what the mako design was like.
It was really great right off the get-go. They went from foam core to wood core a few years ago, it feels like they lost a little bit of the buoyancy in exchange for durability. The shape, however, seems to be the exact same and that's where a lot of the magic is.
Here's a funny anecdote on the magic shape. I was cruising my "wide" strapless on some flat water and wanted to get a handle on just how good the anti perl properties are. I started working my feet up the board (I was toeside, don't know if it matters) bit by bit, waiting to stuff the nose. The final position of stability that I got into was back foot on the forward bolt holes, front toes over the nose. Granted, my weight was all on the back foot, but still ...
When I looked back at the tail it was still locked down into the water. That's one of the pleasures of the mako, looking back at your trench in a turn and it looks like it was made with a compass.