In my teenage years we got bored with waterskiing so started trying to ride all sorts of stuff. My buddy used a canoe paddle - handle forward. Not to be outdone I had to do it handle back. The handle with the flare at the end (remember the old wooden ones?) made a nice slit in the water. Everything was OK until I hit a small wave and the handle snapped. From uprite to hard face down took about 0.25 milliseconds. I was sure my eyeballs were hanging like christmas ornaments on some strings.