Say what you want about Gov. David Ige’s lack of oomph, but give him credit for emphatic shakas.

A look through the photos posted to his public Facebook page shows the gubernatorial thumb-and-pinkie waving with unabashed pride in all manner of official appearances, his fingers often held tightly against the subdued reverse-print executive aloha shirt.

Photo op after bill signing — shaka.

Visit with Japanese businesspeople — shaka.

Bunch of little kids taking a tour of the fifth-floor office — shaka, shaka, shaka.

Ige is certainly not the first Hawaii politician who’s a quick-draw shaka-ist, but he’s in the running for most frequent user. It’s one thing to shaka through Kamehameha Day parades and folksy campaign appearances, but Ige has often flown the fingers from behind the koa desk beneath the gigantic state seal.

Gov. George Ariyoshi was not known to whip out a shaka except on the rare occasion when he was posing with children. Outdoors. For something happy and a bit irreverent. Five-fruits-a-day, and so forth.

Mayor Frank Fasi made the shaka his own, amplifying it with rounded logos, printing it on campaign signs and bumper stickers. Fasi’s shaka was definitely not of the “howzit” variety. For him, it was closer to an OK sign, like, “Don’t worry. I got this.”

Neil Abercrombie was known to occasionally flap his “wounded duck” shaka, but with him, it was more a plea of acceptance, the desperation of an unpopular kid trying to make friends.

Ige’s shaka does not have the wingspan of Mufi Hannemann’s or Bernard Carvalho’s, nor the animation of Billy Kenoi’s (because you know when you get Billy going, he’s like a lost member of Booga Booga.)

Ige’s shaka is usually tighter, more reserved. It is a businessman’s shaka. It matches the shirt.

President Obama could very well be credited for elevating the shaka to new political heights. Seeing POTUS shaka from the steps of Air Force One gives the gesture so much more weight than “hang loose” or “mahalo for letting me merge in front of your car, braddah.” Obama raised the shaka to something closer to the peace sign or Spock’s “live long and prosper.”

With Ige, it’s more a matter of trying to manage the awkwardness of posing for photos. “When there’s a group photo, like for a proclamation, people tend to just stand there like a picket fence,” said Cindy McMillan, the governor’s communications director. “It’s a way to help them look like they’re having fun.”