A lot of kayak paddles already have what are called drip rings which are used to keep excess water from running down the shaft. If your paddle doesn’t have them the first step is to add the drip rings which you can easily find online. The drip ring will stop most of the water, however you will often find that a bit of water will still drip down the shaft or that water will splash from the blade and find its way to you and inside the kayak when you don't have a spray skirt.
There are a couple of other ways to further minimize these drips or splashes. The easiest and fastest way to do this is by applying a bit of duct tape on the bottom of the blade close to the shaft. By doing this a good amount of water will be stopped and redirected straight down. All you have to do is to cut 5 inches of duct tape, fold it in half and on to itself about 1 inch and stick the ends on each side of the bottom of the paddle blade about 2 inches away from the shaft. Our paddle blades come in black so we like using black duct tape so it blends in.
You might find that the duct tape method will be enough but if you would like to further minimize water splashes you can apply ski wax to your paddle blade. This will take some time and effort and you will have to reapply the wax periodically depending on how often you use your paddle.
First you need to cut a small piece of ski wax, a quarter of a bar soap is a good size. Grab the wax and start rubbing it up and down all over the blade until most of the surface is covered, you can also apply the wax to a portion of the shaft if you wish. Get a cotton rag that will only be used for this purpose. Take the rag and give a vigorous rub all over the blade to create some heat and even up the wax. This process will make the surface of your blades hydrophobic and immediately repel the water, it works great!
