Twice Over Niagara - This Time With Friend -- Pair Are Charged; Rescue Is Perilous

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario - Steve Trotter must have thought it was a real barrel of laughs the first time he took a tumble over Niagara Falls and survived.

What else could have compelled him to do it again - this time with a friend?

"Nobody was going to talk him out of this," said Trotter's brother, Dan, wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo "Falls 95, The Real Dive."

"We talked about dying for about two minutes and spent the rest of the time getting ready."

TREATED FOR MINOR INJURIES

Trotter, 33, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Lori Martin, 29, of Columbus, Ga., were treated for minor injuries and jailed yesterday after their 180-foot roll down the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in a foam-wrapped fiberglass barrel.

The pair, who previously had worked together at a bar in Fort Lauderdale, were charged with trespassing, criminal mischief and violations of the Niagara Parks Act, police said.

After its roughly 15-second plunge, the white barrel got snagged on rocks at the base of the falls. It took police and rescue workers about an hour to pull the pair out.

Tom Dettenbeck, a dispatcher for the Niagara Parks Police, an Ontario agency, said such rescues are "very hazardous and perilous" for the rescuers.

"It's a situation that very easily could have turned tragic," he said.

Their 10-foot, 1,110-pound capsule was wrapped in Kevlar, a bulletproof material, and a 2-foot layer of plastic foam, friend Gina Hall said. The $25,000 barrel was even equipped with air tanks.

Trotter had arranged for five still and video cameras, including one in a helicopter, to film the event as hundreds of tourists looked on. Trotter went over the falls in a plastic barrel in 1985.

Trotter and Martin were only the second pair to go over the falls, according to park historians. On Sept. 27, 1989, Joseph DeBernardi of Niagara Falls and Jeffrey Petkovich of Ottawa survived the plunge in a barrel.

Twelve other solo attempts have been made; four people died. Daredevils have gone over in an array of craft, from wooden barrels to kayaks to rubber balls.

"THE FAME IS BRIEF"

"The fame is brief, then, like Steve, they go back to serving drinks," said Niagara Falls Parks Police Sgt. John Clark, who helped rescue Trotter in 1985 and again yesterday.

"He's not a bad guy; he's not a criminal. I can't find it in my heart to be angry with him, but I wish he'd smarten up."

Trotter's previous daredevil stunts have included jumps and swings from cables from several bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge.

In 1985, Trotter went over the 180-foot Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, N.Y., for the first time. He used a $6,200 capsule made of two pickle barrels wrapped in fiberglass and ringed with eight tractor-trailer inner tubes.

The capsule bore a "Support Reagan" bumper sticker - and the words "Johnny Carson's No. 1," painted on the side, in hopes of landing an appearance on the "Tonight Show." He did.

Trotter has been less successful breaking into Hollywood. He has expressed an ambition to become a stunt man, but the director of a stunt school called him an "idiot."