Advice for Beginners
Nowadays kayaks are commodity items like bicycles, and it is easy to buy a thing that you have no experience in using. So here are some pointers for beginners.
This paddle is nearing the end of its life, so I decided to try an experiment. I added a "drip notch". This is a small sharp-edged notch that the water flow can't follow. Instead it departs the edge of the paddle and falls well outside the boat. I hardly got a drop of water on me.
To make the notch, simply drill a 1/4" hole by the edge of the plastic blade, 6-7 inches from the base. Then file it to the shape you see here, with a sharp corner at the edge. The back-cut assures the the stream can't jump over the notch to the other side.
I can't claim this idea, I've seen a few paddles with this feature.