I had thrown said Grey Owl bent in my large freighter canoe as a back up. Over the course of the summer, the launch in back of my house became a little difficult as the water lowered and the cat tails rose. Coming back one night from some festivities, I had two passengers, and the paddle through the bullrushes was more bully than rushy. I took one mighty stroke to push us over a loonshit ridge, and the dang thing snapped like a toothpick. If I had beed using the Black Bart that Alan Gage had given me, the freighter probably would have launched to the moon. Just kidd'n, it probably would have broke too, cause it was a useless bent shaft.
I have broken straight shaft paddles too, but that usually involved massive feats of strength, not a little push through some duck crap.