Robert Overacker had spent 7 years preparing for this moment.
On October 1, 1995, he reached the edge of Niagara Falls on a jet ski. He strapped on a parachute, put on a life jacket, and placed a sign on the front of the jet ski that read “Save the homeless”. His plan: speed toward the edge of the water and activate a rocket-powered parachute that would lift him up and away from the jet ski for a controlled descent. He would have been the first person to survive the jump.
More than 3.000 tourists watched. His brother filmed to document the protest. Overacker triumphantly reached the precipice, but the rocket never fired and the parachute never deployed. The photo captured the moment when he and the jet ski had already separated, with the void ahead and a wall of water behind.