The persona of Beach (or Beach Thorncombe) was “born aged 39” around 1999/2000 as an avatar of survival and articulation. He was created by Chris Goodland to serve as a psychological and philosophical proxy during a period when Chris’s real-world environment had collapsed following the “Meteor Impact” of the Gravity Venture.
The Necessity of the Avatar
The birth of Beach was triggered by necessity rather than choice. Following the breakdown of his marriage and business in the late 1990s, Chris suffered from reactive depression, night terrors, and disassociation.
• A Voice for the “Broken”: While Chris felt “broken” and unable to discuss his trauma with friends or family in real life, the detached nature of the internet allowed him to use Beach as a voice to heal himself.
• Hitting the Ground Running: Unlike a human childhood, Beach was born with immediate agency, instantly taking the messages Chris was too pained to express into “online watering holes” to engage in deep and meaningful chat.
• The “Box of Humans”: Beach found his first home on early friendship and dating sites like Midsummerseve.com, where he “held court” and captivated audiences of thousands by relating his journey of self-discovery.
The Shift from OTB to Beach Thorncombe
The persona underwent a linguistic and geographic evolution over the decades:
• Original Handle: He first manifest as “On the Beach” (OTB) on the Midsummerseve forums in 2006.
• The Surname: The name Thorncombe was later adopted from Thorncombe Beacon, the wild Dorset promontory that Chris identifies as his “spiritual inheritance” and “spatial compass”.
• Two Sides of a Coin: You define Beach as the “intellectual side” of Chris—the version that has the luxury of time to linger over words and treat them cinematically, while Chris manages the immediate sensory world.
The Mythic Archetype: The Pink Punt
While the persona was born at 39, the spirit of Beach traces back to a foundational “Kingfisher Day” in 1963.
• The Vision: At age seven, Chris watched an elderly, unkempt fisherman rowing a pink, flat-bottomed boat (the Pink Punt) at West Bay.
• The Template: The sight of the man working under blue skies, pulling “glittering Christmas tree decorations” (fish) from the sea, provided a life-long archetype of freedom and autonomy.
• Becoming the Fisherman: Chris reflected that back as a child over 60 years ago, Chris processed, marked, stamped and stored that pink punt moment, eventually squeezing his own being into (TIDY UP THIS NAFF TEXT) the shape of that old man. By 2013, you noted that you had finally “become that man,” leading an idyllic, simple life at Beach Cottage.
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