Oahu, Hawaii

The Shaka:

The Shaka was created in Hawaii Nei. The name Shaka was coined by David, “Lippy” Espinda who waved it at the end of his car lot commercials in the 1960s. Although today, you see it being thrown world wide now at sporting events on tv, reality tv, YouTube videos, Soccer games, movies, jiu jitsu tournaments, surf competitions, people from the mainland, and more. Sometimes I scratch my head and ask, “Eh how they know that?” It’s origins go back to the 1900s during the great sugar cane industry of Hawaii.

Although at one time it was misunderstood by the media in 1992 when Miss Hawaii, Carolyn Sapp won the Miss America Pageant . As she walked down the runaway to do her thank you wave, she threw the Shaka at everyone and the media thought it was a devil worshipping sign. OMG! So naive. SMH. (I get other colorful words but I not going write it here) Hahaha. I saw that and was “Chee Hoo”ing in the house. I was so excited she won and was representing Hawaii throwing our local sign up for the world to celebrate! Yeah Carolyn! You go girl! I will never forget that! So awesome! I think on a national level this may have introduced the Shaka to all the US. mainland folks. So that was good. People from Cali to New York was talking and throwing this “Devil Sign” the next couple of days. Got the ball rolling. It put Hawaii on the map!

So I going tell you the story of how I heard it riding on the Hawaiian Railway Society Train in Ewa Beach. Oh by the way. If you ever get a weekend off, take the kids for a fun train ride from Ewa Beach Renton Rd. to Kahe Point in Nanakuli. If you go on certain days they stop for ice cream in Ko Olina. Good fun! Check their schedule.

Now back to the story. So this is what the train guide told us. Something like this. There was once a man named Hamana Kalili, and he was from Laie on the island of Oahu. He grew up as a fisherman but when he was in his younger adult years, he had a job at the Kahuku Sugar Mill where he was a juicer. His job was to place the sugar cane into a machine press that squeezed out the juice. One day he happened to get his hand crushed in the machine. He lost his right hand’s 3 middle fingers only leaving his pinky and thumb.

Since he couldn’t work the line anymore and he was so depressed and the owners of the mill was sad and felt bad too, since he was a good worker, they created a new position for him. He would be security for the mill. The mill had a problem with the neighborhood youth playing and jumping on to the trains, hitching rides, being in places on the property they shouldn’t be.

Hamana would watch and when he saw those kids coming to cross the tracks and jump on the trains he would start making his way down towards them waving his 2 fingered hand in the air and yelling “Stop! Eh stop! No do that!” The kids couldn’t hear so far away. They could only see this guy waving his hand with with what looked like he had his 3 middle fingers down, and so the waved back to him like that as they rode the train away.

The kids learned who he was and what happened so they would tease him and also use the Shaka as a signal to each other that Hamana wasn’t there and the close was clear to jump the train.

Thank you Mr. Kalili for one of the greatest symbols of the world! The Father of the Shaka.

The Shaka would reemerge in the 60s with the term “Shaka Brah” and thrown at the end of a car sales commercial. Later the Shaka would come to be used as a gesture of saying hello and goodbye, and a positive vibes gifting to one person to another. When you drive and throw the shaka out the window, it means a gesture of thank you! Especially after you changed lanes in front of someone. Please put your blinker on first though.

Usually a really good Shaka is preceded by a person pointing at you, then raising their eyebrows, smiling and throwing the Shaka your way, followed by an “Shaka Brah” or “Aurite!” When meeting someone it’s thrown and you would say “Sup brah,” or “Howzit?!” with a head nod. When saying goodbye, it’s used and you say, “Thanks ah,” “Shootz” or “Kden.”

The Shaka is so world reknown that it even has it’s own emoji on in the cell phone text! You can throw the shaka anywhere nowadays! Throw it with your fingers bent towards you or sideways. Only little kids and babies throw it with the fingers down pointed towards others. And make sure it comes from the heart with only positive vibes and a nice smile. Shaka Brah!

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