The body of the San Diegan surfer who vanished overnight after stepping out from his tent near Chuie’s Surf Camp in Mexico has been found, his family told NBC 7.
San Diego resident Scott Robert Fippinger, 20, was camping cliff-side with three friends in Rosarito just south of Tijuana in Mexico near the 52 kilometer marker.
His family found Scott’s body in the water in Mexico, intact. His family believes he likely died from the fall but do not know the cause of death for certain yet.
Fippinger’s father, a retired Marine, found his body yesterday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. after searching for it with a private plane for several days.
The San Diegan surfer went missing on Wednesday, Jan. 14 after camping on a cliff with his friends. Around 3:00 a.m. that morning, his friends reported hearing him wake up to urinate. They heard him leave the tent and saw the light of his cell phone.
They did not realize he was missing until they woke up after sunrise and discovered he was gone. They found his broken cell phone on the concrete slab between the tent and the cliff’s edge around 7:00 a.m., leading them to believe that he fell off the cliff in the early hours of the morning.
High tide that morning peaked at 3:38 a.m. and waves reached up to the base of the cliff.
When the high tide receded, no evidence or marks could be found on the beach below.
Local
Units from the Mexican Naval base in Ensenada were called to help with the search and lifeguards from the Salvavidas division of the Bomberos de Rosarito also been helped with the search, sweeping along the six kilometer stretch of coastline between El Campito and Camp Lopez.
The site of Fippinger’s disappearance, Chuie’s Surf Camp, is located just south of El Campito, near the popular American restaurant Splash.
Fippinger’s mother and father crossed the border the day he was reported missing to help with the search for their missing son.
