One major part of the Just4Fun movement is to promote the talent that comes from the Marianas as well as to help market the products, services or skills these talented people possess. Recently J4F was able to catch up with Cotch Diaz. Cotch has dedicated some serious time into mastering the art of capturing amazing photography as well as video. We asked Cotch to touch up on where and what he is all about, you will see that there is more to Cotch than meets the eye. Here’s what he had to say:

It all begins with my parents being from 2 different islands; Guam & Saipan. Making my roots extend to both the North and South of the Marianas Islands. Raised on Saipan has given me the ability to speak fluently in Chamorro which is our native language. My 3 bros and I rarely speak to our pops in English. Every conversation has been in Chamorro since birth. The fact that my siblings and I have the ability to conversate in our native tongue places us in a small circle in our generation. Fortunately, we were raised by two loving parents that were rich in culture and believed that the passing of tradition was important. This life lesson has paved an unforeseen future for me that seems to be unfolding itself as the years go by.

Before moving out to San Diego California in 2001, I played on the Guam junior Olympic volleyball team for 2 years and the Men’s National volleyball team for a year. Then moved onto playing soccer for the Fokai Men’s Soccer Team and won 3 championships. I was then invited to play on the Guam Mens National Soccer Tean and traveled to Iran, Vietnam, and the Philippines to compete. All these high level competitions overseas with the pride of the islands at stake has taught me how to appreciate where I com from and how to promote my culture properly.

Early in the summer of 2001 I chatted with a high school best friend, Erick Beck, who jokingly threw out the idea to move to California for a bigger and brighter life. After a couple photo slideshows and videos of what was on the other side of the world I was packing for a new beginning. With hardly any college credits and a clue of what to pursue as a major I enrolled in a bunch of random classes at a community college only to find out that I sleep better in class than in bed. Slowly I started to drop out of each class wasting ally my savings. All the finances started stacking with books and supplies that I knew that there was no way I could afford to make it through college and work at the same time. So I got a credit card and started enrolling in classes that U thought offered skills that can actually make money. The next semester I was enrolled in drawing, design, intro to multimedia, and animation I/II/III. Interestingly, I didn’t get much sleep in these classes. I made it through drawing, design and my other classes. Then I realized that all the other creative courses in college pretty much went directly off the books. The teacher would read a segment out of the book and then try to explain it to the students. Then I thought to myself, I’m paying someone to read a book to me and then explain it. Books were meant to be easily be understood. After my revelation, I hopped in and out of classes that caught my attention just to take a picture of the book they were assigned so I could order them online for half price. I save money on tuition and books because I didn’t really enroll in any classes and still learned what everyone else was being taught.

These days I am busy with:

• -Graphic Designing for 8 different gyms including a UFC Gym
• -Graphic Designs for Fokai, Undisputed, Cannibis Planet, LVL5, Wavehouse, Rasta&Company, Shoyoroll,    Ruckus Republic, Me Vale Madre, New York Elementary School System, NBA Player Jared Dudley, 66 Degrees and many more.
• -House photographer for 2 years at the Wavehouse & Soundwave Entertainment Venues
• -Shot photography for the Alternative Games for CBS
• -House Photographer for Total Combat Extreme for 3yrs
• -Flow to Las Vegas, Singapore, Mexico, Los Angeles, and Hawaii for photography
• -Photographer/Videographer for Cannibis Planet
• -Southern California Wedding Photographer
• -Intro/Advanced photography personal trainer

And the list goes on and on… So it is definitely not a secret. If anyone out there really wants to learn something… you don’t need a teacher to learn it. I did it with hardly any money and education… so there is no excuse why anyone else can’t do it.

Cotch thanks for filling us in on what it is you do these days… we are definitely excited to see more from you in the future. If you are interested in the services that Cotch provides please feel free to contact him. Click Here to view more of Cotch’s work or to get in contact with Cotch. Par it’s always a pleasure hanging with you. This weekend was amazing… keep in touch and I you don’t already know Just4Fun’s got your back!!!