niagara falls selfie

Toronto man risks life to take selfie at the edge of Niagara Falls

Today in people with nerves of steel and dangerously bad ideas, we have a Toronto-based artist who, for some reason, journeyed right to the edge of Niagara Falls for a selfie stick video.

TikTok user phantabae (aka phantamos on Instagram) shared footage of himself on Thursday doing something no human should ever do with the expectation of surviving: Lean back over the thunderous Niagara Falls to take a self portrait.

"Professional Daredevil - DO NOT ATTEMPT," reads the caption of the clip, which is tagged with #niagarafalls, #professionalstuntman, #viral2022, #thisisnotatrend and #notachallenge, among other things.

In the 37-second-long video, we see phantabae lie down and shimmy the upper part of his body over a ledge that we soon come to learn is directly next to the fast-moving falls. 

He moves his selfie stick around, from one side to the other, providing a more accurate and terrifying picture of what he's actually doing. Later, we see him standing on the cliff ledge, selfie stick held high above him, resting a foot on what looks like a slippery, sharp piece of rock.

The man (whose outstanding photography we've actually featured here at blogTO before,) clearly survived to upload his footage — though many people in the comments of his TikTok post say it could have easily gone another way.

"You know the cliff edges are very prone to breaking," wrote one. "The rocks get slippery close to the edge, my friend almost died there and got airlifted, fell on his head," wrote another.

Aside from the usual "OMG NO," "WHY?" and "Do you have a death wish?" comments, many are about the fact that phantabae is wearing a mask while performing his death-defying stunt.

"Scared of covid but not of falling down the falls," wrote one commenter on TikTok. Said another: "Love the mask... that fresh air be hitting hard." Instagram followers were equally tickled by the irony.

blogTO was unable to reach the artist for comment in time for publication, but did speak with the Niagara Regional Police Service, which told us that the falls fall under the jurisdiction of the Niagara Parks Police Service (that's right, the parks have their own cops in Niagara.)

The park police say they are "aware of posted 'selfie' cell phone video of individual over retaining wall brink of Horseshoe Falls" and that an investigation relating to the matter is now underway.

"A conviction for engaging in a stunt/feat contrary to Niagara Parks Act may result in a fine up to $10,000," say police. 

See also: Death.

Lead photo by

@phantabae


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