The same thing happens if you ride motorbikes and see another rider, or drive an old combi and see another combi.
Also happens in all cars in some of the rural areas in my country.
My only theory is once a community is small enough, the hello wave is used.
Cars (pickups) one or two fingers from the steering wheel.
Bikes (bicycles) do this if they aren’t training
I miss when Jeeps were a small enough community that it was a fun thing. Now you have people practically hanging out their windows to get your attention out of a jeep that has never seen a spec of dirt.
This used to happen to me when I had a three wheeler (Reliant in UK)
I used to have an FJ cruiser- sort of sad that the community was so small but also not! Loved going to Ouray Colorado and Moab for adventures (mine was definitely not a mall crawler but also not absurdly modded).
Yeah but your examples are members of the same community. What is weird and endearing is that people who have never been on a boat will wave at people just because they are on a boat. Conversely, people on a boat will eave at people on land. Its as if a transport vehicle was a ride. A jet ski or something.
People on land will wave because they’ve been waved at.
People on a boat will wave at people just because they’re on a boat.
Simple as.
Okay, buy why do people on land wave at people on a boat? Is it a throwback from when people might travel to new and exotic lands possibly never to see their families again? Peopkr also wave at people on carnival rides. Is that the same impulse? Whats up with that?
It is because waving is such an innocent gesture that it feels like letting a puppy drown if you don’t wave back.
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Whitewater kayakers: brown claw instead of wave.
Every time I’ve seen the Coast Guard in close range I’ve waved… and every time they’ve waved back.
I think it’s a positive feedback loop.
It’s a similar reason people wave to train engineers, trains and boats are cool and by extension the people on them are cool.
Motorcyclists, jeep wrangler drivers, people in convertibles, and to a lesser extent, people in muscle cars all do the same thing.
