Updated

The body of a 20-year-old college student who disappeared during a surfing trip to Mexico has been found, a family friend told Fox 5 in San Diego.

Scott Robert Fippinger, a San Diego native and a junior at California State University San Marcos, was camping with some friends at a cliffside campsite near Rosarito Beach – about 30 minutes south of the U.S.-Mexico border – when he left his tent around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 14th.

His friends said they remember seeing him walking and his cellphone light on and assumed he got up to go the bathroom.When they awoke in the morning, however, the young surfer wasn't in his sleeping bag.

Fippinger’s father, a retired Marine Corps pilot, had been leading the search for his son. He was making a last pass before calling off the search when he spotted Scott’s body in the ocean, the family friend told the station. A boat recovered the body and brought it back to shore.

Units from the Mexican Naval base in Ensenada aided in the search for the missing surfer and lifeguards from the Salvavidas division of the Rosarito fire department also helping with the search by sweeping along the four-mile stretch of coastline between El Campito and Camp Lopez.

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Fippinger disappeared at Chuie’s Surf Camp, which is located just south of El Campito, near the popular American restaurant Splash.

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