Handshake rituals

Shaking hands should be simple. It's supposed to be a gesture that anyone can take part in without needing to think about in advance. Put hand out, grasp other person's hand, shake, release, continue life. Yes there's always a bit of confusion if one of the people is left handed - do you adjust for them, or stick with right handed convention, but all in all it's pretty clear what you're supposed to do and if we just drowned all the left-handed babies like I keep recommending then we'd be fine.

Unfortunately, the skiing community has taken this simple, time honoured ritual and made it confusing and difficult. So far I have experienced 5 types of binary (as in involving two people) hand gestures, and there are probably more out there. These are:

The Standard Grip (or Low) Handshake:

The standard grip handshake is a common form of greeting across the English speaking world. Both parties face each other and each extends a hand with their palm facing across their body and their thumb pointing upwards. The extended hands must be compatible: Either both right hands or both left hands. A right-hand-to-left-hand standard handshake will not work.


Each party clasps their partner's hand so that their fingers wrap around the side of the hand closest to the little finger. The thumb should be wrapped around the back of the partner's hand at a comfortable angle. Once this grip has been established, the clasped hands are moved firmly up and down through a 10-20cm range for between 1 and 3 oscillations. There is considerable variation in this shaking action, even beyond the parameters set out above, but shaking too vigorously or too many times is considered creepy. A particularly weak grip or a complete failure to shake your partner's hand at all is also considered wierd (see also: Jeremy Codhand).

The Reverse Grip (or High) Hand Handshake:

Both parties each extend one hand at roughly chest height with their thumb pointing toward their own face. They then clasp their partner's hand so that their fingers wrap around the region where the base of the thumb meets the wrist. When done correctly, this should mean that the two thumbs involved in the handshake are adjacent, facing each other and interlocking. This handshake does not actually involve a literal shake.


Similar in form the the standard grip handshake, the reverse grip handshake allows each person involved to use the handshake to pull their partner towards themself and use their spare hand for a brief platonic embrace. This is also possible with the standard grip handshake, but the reverse grip has the important advantage of keeping the clasped pair of hands at chest height during the embrace. Using the standard grip, the clasped hands tend to be directed downwards towards the naughty bits as both parties are drawn together and this can make for an awkward moment mid-embrace.

The Bump:

Current sociological research suggests that the hand bump in the skiing community arose from the need for a convenient gesture that could be completed while wearing ski gloves and holding a ski pole. Both parties involved in the bump form a fist with their desired hand. They then move their fists towards their partners with the aim of gently bumping their fists together. After contact, both parties retract their fist and return to normal hand activities.


Sources tell me that there are a number of variations to the bump, including (but not limited to) the "explode", the "explode-implode", and the "go with it". Needless to say, this simply confuses the situation even further.

The High Five:

Made famous by music videos from the 80s, the high five is a slap-based hand gesture. Both parties raise one hand above shoulder height with their palm facing away from their own body and towards their partner's hand. Each person then moves their hand towards the other's, producing a mutual hand slap. It is customary to follow through by striking a glancing blow that moves past the partner's hand towards the thumb side of your own hand.


The Pole Tap:

This requires each party to have a ski pole. Grasping the handle of the ski pole, each person swings their pole towards their partner's pole in a gentle and predictable arc. At the completion of this arc, both poles meet, with contact occuring in the bottom half of each pole. This should produce a gentle pinging noise. Pole taps are not intended to indicate superiority or damage equipment and care must be take to exercise appropriate force.


The inability of snowboarders to participate in the pole tap is considered exclusive and the gesture is now considered discriminatory. For this reason, pole tapping is increasingly uncommon and frowned upon.

The problem with having five binary hand gestures is that it's never clear which gesture to use. This breakdown in conventions has made greeting new people awkward and alienating. I have found it best to make a clear hand gesture that makes it obvious what greeting is intended, but in situations where the other person extends their hand in an ambiguous way, it is difficult to avoid awkward hand groping. I suspect I may have recently high-fived a person who was only intending to wave to me, and have since spent several hours considering this possible faux pas. This is truly a strange and troubling world.