Anyone that has been to Hawaii has seen this.

In surf and ocean culture, this is a sign of greeting, excitement or what not. Its big in California and skate culture as well.

We do it here as a sign of celebration after seeing something cool underwater. Underwater clapping.

In any case, I did a bit of research and discovered some origins….I choose to remember Hamana Kalili.

From Wikipedia

Shaka sign

The “shaka” sign is a common greeting in the Hawaiian culture and New Zealand subsequently also used in surfer cultures.

The shaka sign, sometimes known as “hang loose,” is a gesture of friendly intent often associated with Hawaii and surf culture. It consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the hand may be rotated back and forth for emphasis. While the shaka sign has spread internationally from its Hawaiian cultural roots to surf culture and beyond, the hand gesture also bears a variety of meaning in different contexts and regions of the world.

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According to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,^[1] prevailing local lore credits the gesture to Hamana Kalili of Laie,^[2] who lost the three middle fingers of his right hand while working at the Kahuku Sugar Mill. Kalili was then shifted to guarding the sugar train, and his all-clear wave of thumb and pinkie is said to have evolved into the shaka as children imitated the gesture.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]}

Another theory relates the origin of the shaka to the Spanish immigrants, who folded their middle fingers and took their thumbs to their lips as a friendly gesture to represent sharing a drink with the natives they met in Hawaii.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Yet another theory relates the origin to visiting whalers who signaled a catch with a “tails up” shaka.^{[citation needed]}

Shaka and its very positive associations may simply derive from the popular World War II “V for Victory” hand sign, in Hawaii often held up and rotated rapidly back and forth, “shaken”, hence shaka.^{[citation needed]} In American sign language the extended thumb and ‘pinky’ with mid-fingers folded, quickly rotated at wrist, means ‘to play’.

The late Lippy Espinda, a used car salesman and Oahu-based entertainer, has also been named as a possible creator of the shaka.^[17][18] Espinda, who frequently appeared as an extra in Hawaii Five-O as well as The Brady Bunch episodes shot in Hawaii, used the term and the sign during his television ads in the ’60s. Though the claim that he is the originator of the shaka sign is debatable, he is credited with increasing its popularity and of Hawaiian Pidgin as well.^[1] The shaka has achieved great popularity in Australia, primarily among teenagers on social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.

The Oxford English Dictionary claims that shaka’s etymology is uncertain, speculating a Japanese byname for the Buddha stemming from Sanskrit śākyamuni.^[19] Oxford defines shaka as being, “Used to express affirmation, approval, solidarity, etc., often when greeting or parting from someone.’.” ^{[20][failed verification]} Oxford derived dates its definition to an article in the May 1986 issue of the now defunct Surfing Magazine.^{[21][failed verification][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}

Hawaiian meaning and use[edit]

Residents of Hawaii use the shaka to convey the “Aloha Spirit”, a concept of friendship, understanding, compassion, and solidarity among the various ethnic cultures that reside in Hawaii, lacking a direct semantic to literal translation. The shaka can also be used to express “howzit?”, “thanks, eh?”, and “all right!”. Drivers will often use it on the road to communicate distant greetings and gratitude.

In California, the shaka sign may be referred to as “hang loose” or “hang ten“, both associated with surfer culture.^[31]

The gesture enjoys common use in American hang gliding culture, for both sentiment and word play, in part due to the simultaneous rise of surfing and hang gliding in California in the 1960s and 1970s. It is also widely used among triathletes, skydivers, base jumpers, wakeboarders, scuba divers, paragliders, pilots, skateboarders, and speed-flyers.^{[citation needed]}

Along coastal Brazil, the shaka sign, known as the “hang loose” (also derived from an eponymous clothing brand, which uses the shaka as a logo), is a common gesture; Ronaldinho usually celebrated the goals he scored by giving the crowd a double shaka. It is also associated with the Brazilian jiu jitsu community internationally.^[31]

There are several Emoticon representations of the shaka sign – \,,,/, \m/, and \,,,_. The earliest known use of the first two, with three commas or a lower case “m” corresponding to a hand’s three middle fingers, is from 2006.^[32] The last, similar to the first except that it represents the thumb extended horizontally (as if perpendicular to the wrist) is reported, together with the first form, from Brigham Young University in 2016.^[33]