Steve Trotter

Next to go over Niagara was a 22 year old part-time bartender from Barrington, Rhode Island. In a device made of two plastic pickle barrels surrounded by large inner tubes and covered by a tarpaulin, he made his successful plunge at 8:30 a.m. on August 18, 1985.

Emerging uninjured from his home-made barrel inscribed with "Support Reagan", referring to then US President Ronald Reagan, Trotter became the youngest man to survive the plunge. Two of the large inner tubes had deflated and a large dent was made in the side. The hatch was blown off but Steve Trotter managed to swim free of the craft and was picked up by the crew aboard The Maid of the Mist. Trotter, like previous daredevils, was fined. During a media conference Trotter would latter state the trip was "cool... like dropping in an elevator without a cable." He made a few television appearances and seemingly disappeared from the public eye until a dramatic reappearance in the summer of 1995.

On June 18,1995 Trotter teamed up with friend Lori Martin, a 29 year old woman from Atlanta, Georgia for the first "co-ed" barrel ride over the Falls.

Their 3.6 m (12ft) barrel was made from two pieces of hot water heater tanks welded together and coated by Kevlar. It weighed together in at 408 kg (900lbs) and was reported to have costs $19,000. A Florida investment banker funded this stunt. The barrel was equipped with 4 oxygen tanks containing enough air to last for up to one hour and 20 minutes.

Launched shortly before 9:30 a.m. approximately 91m from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls, it went over the Falls and became lodged in a rock crevice. Members of the Niagara Falls Fire Department, along with the Niagara Parks Police, had to climb over a guard rail in the tunnels to reach the trapped barrel and secure it to shore with a line. They then undid the hatch and pulled out Martin who was wearing knee pads and protective clothing; Trotter climbed out afterwards.

The barrel was trapped for nine days and was then removed by a crane for safety reasons. It remained with the Niagara Parks Commission for several weeks before weeks before Trotter returned to reclaim it, paying the costs that were incurred in retrieving it from below the Falls.