Special 7'4"

7' 4"
Length
28.5"
Width (in)
18
Weight (lb)
discontinued

This Product Has Been Discontinued

Special 7'4" Description

Designed and tested in southern California, the Special is a "daily-driver" performance surf SUP. Your go-to board for surf in the 2'-6' range. The Special also doubles as a nice cruiser for those looking for a smaller SUP than most standard boards on the market.

Special 7'4" Specs and Features

  • Structure: Rigid / Hard Shell
  • Seating Configuration: Solo
  • Ideal Paddler Size: Smaller Adult/Child
  • Skill Level: Beginner, Intermediate
  • Ideal Paddler Size: Smaller Adult/Child
  • Skill Level: Beginner, Intermediate

Boardworks
Special 7'4" Reviews

Read reviews for the Special 7'4" by Boardworks as submitted by your fellow paddlers. All of the reviews are created and written by paddlers like you, so be sure to submit your own review and be part of the community!

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4

Great SUP Surf Board

Submitted by: Stroud on 7/18/2017

I’m 5’6” and weigh about 130 lbs. I’ve surfed the board 4 days to the tune of probably 150 to 200 waves (GPS surf accessory aided wave count). I’ve been surfing it in beachbreaks from about thigh high to maybe a bit overhead. I’ve surfed it in conditions ranging from clean offshore, to hard offshore to sideshore, to somewhat sloppy onshore conditions. It has usually been pretty steep and/or hollow, though no barrels and a bit mushier on the sloppy and smaller onshore day. The hard offshore/sideshore days had some cross chop and such going on in the lineup as well.

I am very happy with the board. Good stability in the lineup and in maneuvers like floaters. Turns great off the top and out on the shoulder. Rides in the pocket and tube really well (that may be its best differentiating quality compared to the other boards I’ve ridden). In turns I could slide the tail, release the fins, or keep the rail in the water all pretty easily and with good control. The tail slides out a bit on deep bottom turns low on the face or in the flats of steep or hollow waves, though that has also been an issue for me on a couple of my other boards so far. It does at least not pop me out of the wave face when I put a lot of rail into a turn, which has been a common problem for me. This is probably due to its lower volume and rails that are really soft for most of their length, and quite thin as well (mostly due to the board being so thin). The rails start to get hard just before the fins, and get pretty hard toward the tail, probably aiding in its looseness off the top, but maybe contributing to the sliding out on those bottom turns. Works well with both the quad and thruster setups I’ve tried it with, with some predictable differences. I think I prefer it as a quad, but the thruster setup gave me a little more speed control for getting into and sitting in the pocket and trying to slow down for barrels (though with its wide tail stalling is still going to be a difficult task). I question the choice of fins that came with it (FCS II Carver Thrusters) both in their size (medium, too small a thruster set for a SUP with a tail this wide in my opinion) and template, and I have not used them. Seems a bit heavy for a board its size when I pick it up, but that’s just an impression. I would recommend this board to someone my size of advanced intermediate to somewhat advanced skill. I’ll probably give it a lot of use, but I kind of consider it a stepping stone to boards of a bit lower volume that have narrower and more streamlined templates. I felt it was a significant step down of about 12L for me (about 13% from my other smallest board) that I was a little worried about, but its width and template outline is a lot greater than that of other production/stock boards its size (possible because it is quite thin) and that gave me the confidence to give it a try since I’ve been riding a couple of boards a little narrower and shorter. It turned out to be very easy for me to handle immediately in a variety of conditions, so I’m already obsessing about what my next, smaller board should be.

That’s pretty extensive, though I’ve actually tried to limit my analysis. I could have gone on more about my fin use impressions and how I thought some of the design features were contributing to different areas of performance. I don't know if you can message me for more info here, but I’m on FB as Stroud Spins if you want to hit me up.

5

Been paddling the 7.4 Special…

Submitted by: guest-paddler on 4/12/2016
Been paddling the 7.4 Special for a few months now and its a great board for smaller or more advanced SUP surfers. The size and shape make it an excellent board for riding medium to large waves and it handles like a short board once you get it planning on the wave. At my weight of 175, It took a few sessions to get used to the size of the board, but has opened up some new abilities for my surfing once I got used to it. Pros Shape is great. Size and volume are great for more advanced or small paddlers. Construction is strong. FCS II fin set up is great Cons Could be an inch more narrow for some surfing styles Usage Surf