The Vessel Puffs Her Sails
So finished up the Rescue Class Saturday. It was a lot of surface work so I’m sun-fried.
But all good. Very satisfying to teach.
And then this guy showed up on the island. Did a refresher class for him yesterday. We do dives this afternoon. Advanced Open Water starting this evening.
I woke Tuesday morning at about 730am expecting to have an empty day. Then I got a message at 8am asking “Can u be on a CPR/Rescue class this morning?” I said sure! Turns out it was the whole course for 4 days.
So the WiFi is down at the shop and there is much nashing of teeth.
Will report back in good order.
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
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.
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]
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]
After listening to our boat captains, a new student this week inquired about the nature of the local island accent.
A few of us discussed the similarities of the accents and dialects in the islands.
She was from Augusta, GA and after thinking for a moment said that the accent sounded like the Gullah in the Carolinas. I think she was spot on.
The Gullah (/ˈɡʌlə/) are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, in both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. They developed a creole language, the Gullah language, and a culture rich in African influences that makes them distinctive among African Americans.
Historically, the Gullah region extended from the Cape Fear area on North Carolina’s coast south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on Florida’s coast. Today, the Gullah area is confined to the Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry. The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee, which may be derived from the name of the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia.[1] Gullah is a term that was originally used to designate the creole dialect of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people. Over time, its speakers have used this term to formally refer to their creole language and distinctive ethnic identity as a people. The Georgia communities are distinguished by identifying as either “Freshwater Geechee” or “Saltwater Geechee”, depending on whether they live on the mainland or the Sea Islands.[2][3][4][5]
Because of a period of relative isolation from whites while working on large plantations in rural areas, the Africans, drawn from a variety of Central and West African ethnic groups, developed a creole culture that has preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage from various peoples; in addition, they absorbed new influences from the region. The Gullah people speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and influenced by African languages in grammar and sentence structure. Sometimes referred to as “Sea Island Creole” by linguists and scholars, the Gullah language is especially related to and almost identical to Bahamian Creole. There are also ties to Barbadian Creole, Guyanese Creole, Belizean Creole, Jamaican Patois and the Krio language of West Africa. Gullah crafts, farming and fishing traditions, folk beliefs, music, rice-based cuisine and story-telling traditions all exhibit strong influences from Central and West African cultures.[6][7][8][9]
From Wikipedia
Rick Ocasek of The Cars passed away yesterday.
Would have loved to see these guys in concert.
One of my favorites.
Those 80’s songs had such a lilt to them and even a sad song could have a song with the sound of a happy outlook.
My friend Dan once commented about the tone and feeling of different genres and eras of music. I think about that a lot.
In any case Rick, thank you.
This reminds me of an article I recently read https://theweek.com/articles/861750/coming-death-just-about-every-rock-legend
And I will add a link to another sad story here. https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/the-day-the-music-burned/ar-AACIbo2
So a few nights ago, I’m at the Mango Inn with some folks having a pizza. The Mango Inn has dorms for the younger backpackers that are learning diving and crams them 4 to a room. It’s common knowledge.
A man staying at the regular part of the hotel comes up to one of us with a local man tagging along.
Apparently the local man had come to the hotel with a drivers license and was going door to door at the hotel showing an ID and asking if we knew the person. We did. It is a Dive Master Trainee (DMT) that we know at the shop.
The local man had found his knapsack with all his wallet, keys, phone….everything at the beach about a mile away. And then he had gone on a walk-about to find the rightful owner.
He gave us the ID and said that the owner could come and pick the stuff up if he presented the ID and it matched. It did, and they young kid left a healthy reward. It had been lost the night before.
PostScript: Our clumsy traveler heard on the phone the next morning…”Its a long story…Yes, Mom. I know…..I won’t…..OK I will be more careful.”
So during the day, the deck of the boats and especially the dock and equipment clean area get HOT. And walking barefoot on them is quite uncomfortable.
The remedy is a 5 gallon bucket of salt water that we splash across the deck. Instant but temporary relief. Our boats are no-shoe boats, and most people stash their shoes to the side.
I’m easily drinking 5 liters of water a day. Staying hydrated. I may have mentioned before, however, that the water here is pure distilled. No minerals. So it has been important to take electrolytes.
Just a tidbit.
Got bit by one of these bad boys they call a Doctor Fly. I guess its just a big Horsefly in the US.
Raised a welt on my rear thigh that was like half a ping pong ball. Went away quick though.
Sorry for the long delay in posting. I concluded my first teaching assignment today: An Open Water Scuba Diving class…the intro to diving.
I taught with our staff member Ewan and we had two students.
It was remarkably satisfying, much more than I expected. To see them wideyed and a little wary the first day in the water, and then at 15meters today to wrap up four real ocean dives with some skill…very fun.
It turns out that one of the students lived about half a mile from me in lower Manhattan and her favorite bar is The Fish Market. She emailed Jeff, the owner a picture of us. She was my first certification. What are the chances.