Broken fin stuck in surfboard?

Question

Hey everyone i was surfing today and my center fin broke off the board. The Fin is off but the base of the fin is stuck in the board. Is there a way i can take that out of the board to put a new one in?

Answer 1

I literally just solved this problem 30 seconds ago on my board. My fin was broken in the same way. After 25 minutes of fruitless messing around, I did this:
I took a small (thin) s***w and screwed it from the top down through the broken fin (like you're s******g down toward the bottom of the fin box, but you're going through the fin itself). Make sure to insert the s***w at the point where you would normally be pulling a fin in the normal course of removal (I usually have to pull my fin upwards and toward the nose of my board to remove my fins, so I inserted the s***w closer to back end of the fin as opposed to the front end). Make sure not to go so deep that you actually hit the fin box itself, although you shouldn't worry about this if your s***w isn't excessively long. A real concern is aiming the s***w straight - if you veer to the sides it might go through the fin on the side and damage the fin box or board.

Once the s***w is secure, take a good set of pliers to the s***w and simply pull in the direction you normally would to remove the fin. In this way the s***w acts as an extension of the fin, giving you something to pull on.

Hope that helps.