A 2006 Tige 24V will be getting prime-time network exposure this summer in a 13-part young-adult television series airing on the ABC Family Channel.
Falcon Beach premiered June 5 with a two-hour episode on the network. Subsequent one-hour episodes will air throughout the summer each Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central.
Produced and filmed in Canada near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Falcon Beach tells the story of local and vacationing young men and women sharing three months together in a fictional waterfront community on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The main character is an aspiring wakeboarder struggling to become a professional by winning a local contest. The character ends up training and competing behind the Tige 24V, which appears as the “dream” wakeboarding boat in several of the episodes throughout the 13-week run. While wakeboarding is a central theme in Falcon Beach, the series is a young-adult drama about relationships, social conflicts and personal growth.
“It’s about summer. It’s about freedom. It’s about young adults trying to define themselves for the life ahead,” reads a network synopsis of the series. “But it’s also about two worlds colliding – that of the summer cottagers and that of the townies who live and work in Falcon Beach year round.”
Tige loaned the 24V to Insight Productions/Original Pictures, creators of the series, for July and August, 2005. For the riding sequences, the production company uses stunt double Duncan Jessiman, of the local Tige dealership Winnipeg Water Sports.
The series is creating quite a buzz among TV viewers and the wakeboarding community. In its July issue Wakeboarding Magazine carried photos, a story and interviews with Jessiman and series star Steve Byers.
Calling the show “the OC with wakeboarding”, the Wakeboarding article states “In the history of television, no show has ever had an aspiring pro wakeboarder as its main character.”
Apparently the ABC-Family Channel is optimistic about the show’s hit potential, extending the series into a second season in 2007. The production company will begin filming of the second season this month and is once again including the Tige 24V as an integral part of the story line.
For additional information and local TV scheduling of the Falcon Beach series, visit abcfamily.go.com or falconbeach.ca. Information about the featured Tige 24V and the entire line of Tige multi-sport inboards can be viewed at tige.com.
