OVER THE EDGE: Freeport thrillseeker plans to barrel over Niagara Falls one last time (PHOTOS)

Steve Trotter is an intelligent, well-spoken and charismatic individual who happens to have barreled over Niagara Falls, twice.

And, he’s about to do it again.

When he was 22 years old, the Freeport man was the youngest person ever to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Doing what most people define as crazy, Trotter lives life on the edge.

Now 50 years old, and while shucking and jiving at the Acme Oyster House at The Village of Baytowne Wharf, Trotter spoke to the Sun about the first time he decided to do the unthinkable.

“I went to visit the Falls as a kid when I was 7 years old, and I just had a draw to it,” he said. “Then I saw Annie Taylor’s barrel and I thought, ‘I have to do that.’ ”

Taking the plunge

Annie Taylor was the first person to survive a trip in a barrel over Niagara Falls on her 63^rd birthday in 1901.

Trotter’s glory day was Aug. 18, 1985, when he tucked himself into two Greek pickle barrels. The barrel was padded with ballistic Kevlar with hatches on both ends and encircled by inner tubes to dampen the blow. Trotter and his tricked-out barrel safely and successfully made it over the edge.

“It was wild,” he said. “The Falls is about 178 feet high. So you have that initial hit when you get over the Falls, then you have the water accompanying you at 1,200,000 gallons a second.”

But despite the dangers, the stunt was accomplished. Coming out with barely a scratch, Trotter was quickly thrown into jail as well as into the limelight.

After serving a mere 30 minutes in jail, he was released and bombarded by the media.

His most famous interview was on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, where he and the King of Late Night joked and discussed his latest adventure.

After the thrill of the stunt died down, Trotter went back to his home in Fort Lauderdale, where he worked as a bartender. Although he had accomplished his dream, he wasn’t done.

“I wanted to be on a 10-year-plan,” Trotter said during an interview at his home. “I knew I would do it again.”

Ten years later, on June 18, 1995, Trotter made his way back to Canada, this time in disguise  ­­— having been red flagged by officials from his last stunt— and bringing a friend with him.

“I went up two weeks before disguised in a Rollie Fingers mustache, sunglasses, and a hat. I tried to keep a low profile,” he said. “Then I went back and got the crew, and we stayed up there a week before getting everything together.”

Once everything was in position, Trotter and his friend Lori Martin took the plunge. The second stunt was less successful, and Trotter walked away with a compression fracture in his back, two weeks of jail time and a $14,700 fine.

With help from his fellow bartenders and friends in Fort Lauderdale, Trotter paid the fine and was released. Although he had to pay substantial costs for both trespassing and retrieving the barrel that was stuck in the Falls for more than a week, Martin and Trotter became the first male-woman duo to go over the Falls in history.

A history of stunts

It’s said that those who don’t learn from the past are bound to repeat it. But with Trotter, he had learned how to push the envelope, and he wasn’t willing to stop at the Falls.

One of his favorite memories was after performing a jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. On his 23^rd birthday, he stood on the bridge overlooking Alcatraz prison when the Coast Guard showed up.

“They said, ‘Mr. Trotter stay where you are.’ I’m thinking ‘Crap. They know my name.’ I had nowhere to go.”

But down.

After the jump, he was thrown in jail and was suffering from a severe laceration on his thigh where the cord cut into him. Stuck in jail on his birthday, bleeding and unhappy, he thought, “Wow, what a birthday.”

All of a sudden, his luck changed. A deputy came to his cell and said that his bond had been made and to follow him. Confused as to who helped him, Trotter didn’t ask questions and followed orders.

He was met with a surprise to see two complete strangers waiting to take him out of jail and celebrate his birthday with him.

“They said they had heard about me before and were big fans,” he said. “It was a woman by the name of Esther Green and a guy named Lorri Wilkins who dragged me down to this old jazz bar in San Francisco. When I walked in there was a band there who said, ‘Hey it’s the guy who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.’ At which point they started to sing this song called, ‘The guy who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.’ It turned from the worst birthday ever to the best.”

Back to Niagara

Trotter is 20 years behind on his 10-year-plan to conquer the Falls. He hasn’t performed a stunt since 1997, which is not a coincidence. Aside from being on high alert in Canada, Trotter has other reasons for taking a break from thrill seeking.

“I would do other sorts of stunts, and one I did in 1997 went terribly wrong,” he said. “My buddies and I were going to do a pendulum swing off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa. So we had a 200-foot long cable that we attached and five small wooden disks attached to the end of the cable that would be the weight of the pendulum. So we jumped off and halfway through we hear, ‘snap!’ and the cable broke. We went flying 70 feet into the bay, and hit it like a ton of bricks.”

That incident left two of his friends in critical condition and Trotter with major injuries. Out of respect for his friends, Trotter swore off his daredevil ways for a while. 

“When you see two of your friends almost die from a stunt you put on, it shakes you up,” he said.

But his mourning period is over, and Trotter is in the planning stage of performing his third and final drop from the Falls. Without giving too many details about when and where it will happen out of fear that the Canadian government will interfere with his plans, Trotter did say that he’s already making his “Trottersphere” safe and solid.

With help from an engineer, Trotter is taking all precautions to make sure he can perform the stunt safely.

“I may try some crazy stuff, but I’m huge on safety,” he said. “I’m not stupid about it.”

This includes insulating the Trottersphere with nuclear warhead packing materials, and having the barrel designed and inspected by top-notch engineers, and a rescue team of Navy SEALS.

“I just have this draw to the Falls, and it’s calling me back,” he said.