Extreme Sailing Series™ – Getting to know Edhem Dirvana

by Extreme Sailing Series™ on 17 Apr 2015 Extreme Sailing Series™ – The Team Turx powered by Kaya Ropes co-skipper, 38, on keeping it cool, being a movie star and creating a more peaceful world.

My first sailing experience was when I was just 10 days old. My father was a big time yatchy so I was born into this environment and I didn’t really have much of a choice. I don’t remember when I learnt to sail, it was just something I grew up doing and throughout my childhood we were always competing in races, it was our family activity.

I have got this old Formula 40 boat in Turkey, which I found just laying somewhere ruined, so I repaired it and started sailing it. For me, that was the ultimate sailing experience. That’s when I realised I wanted to do this more and I wanted to pursue it at a professional level. It’s what got me hooked and that’s why I am involved in the Extreme Sailing Series.

Before each day in the Series, we just try to act casual and stay relaxed because during the race we are automatically in the zone and that is when full concentration is needed. I am a loud person and sometimes I get over excited so I try to calm myself down, because when one person starts yelling everyone starts yelling, and this can cause some people to get nervous and that’s the last thing we want. This type of racing is teaching me to calm myself down.

I feel responsible for this whole project, it’s like my baby. With each Act we are improving as sailors and as a team. During the last Act in Muscat, we were getting into a rhythm and it feels good when the team are working together. It’s like a harmony, an orchestra where everybody is playing the right tune and it feels great.

Once I was in a movie and I ended up playing the lead role. It came out of the blue as I was just going to be an actor in the film but the Director wanted me to play the lead role. What I have learnt from life as a sailor has transferred and helped me with the acting, it’s about good observation and then using what you have absorbed. In sailing it is important to observe what is going on and then you immediately adapt to what you have just seen. Also, you have to be able to endure long hours. In the Extreme Sailing Series, you do eight high-energy explosive races a day and you always have to be focused. In a movie, it’s a lot of hours, doing the takes again and again and you always need to maintain focus. So I guess you can say in that sense they have helped each other.

Our sport is good at bringing people together. My goal is to represent my country at a high level event like the America’s Cup and be able to share sailing with everybody, this really motivates me. Just to show the world that sailing is a fantastic sport that unites people and reminds us that we are one big tribe. Sailing gives me joy and I think that if everyone in this world could sail there would be much more harmony and it would be a more peaceful world.