I know your not the only paddlers that did the same thing ;)
One of the first time's I met QD, it was with the 3 other guys I used to trip with. While in Dave's Outfitter shack, paying our bill and getting fishing licenses and paddles, one of the guys picked up the "new" bent shaft paddle and was doing a "air" paddle demo of it.

Dave started laughing and told him that he had it backward :-[
Sad thing was, the next day on Beaverhouse, that guy and another one, Insisted on using them backward, arguing that it "seemed" better and that Dave didn't know what he was talking about :(

Another reason it was time for me to become a solotripper ;D