Scott Fippinger vanished in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Fippinger family photo
The end of the week brought a bittersweet conclusion to the tragic and confusing disappearance of San Diego resident Scott Robert Fippinger. According to NBC 7 San Diego, the body of the missing surfer was found dead off the coast of Baja. The surfer went missing after vanishing in the middle of the night while camping with friends near Chuie’s Surf Camp in Mexico. With Fippinger long suspected dead, this is a positive step in the direction of determining what exactly happened — though given the murky circumstances that may never be completely clear — and, hopefully, the beginnings to offering some sense of closure for the family.
Early Friday morning we received a message from an Inertia community member sharing the update, which, at the time, only appeared on a Facebook group called Talk Baja and a forum thread titled Baja Nomad, registered and regularly updated by a friend of the family, who was quickly and enthusiastically joined by others who shared his concern. The update read: “Sorry for the quickness of this note but I’m typing by phone and trying to hurry. Yesterday we found Scott’s body in the kelp off Campo Lopez two miles south of the accident site. It was sad, but necessary for the closure that the discovery helps provide. I’ll try to post a better thank you to all of you next week. For now we are mired in paperwork in Rosarito. Just wanted Nomads to be aware that the search is over. Again, thanks for your kind words and support.”
Soon thereafter, NBC 7 confirmed the good news with an official report: “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.”
Thank you to our community member who reached out as well as everyone involved in the effort to bring Scott Robert Fippinger back to San Diego and, most importantly, back to his family and friends.
Welcome home, Scott.
