Magooch,
No drip rings but some people tie a cord tightly around the blade about 3 inches away from your grip position. Length of paddle should be about as high as you can reach up over your head and be able to curl your fingers over the blade end. Mine are 86 to 88". Width at the end of the blade is what you can comfortably hold -- I use 3 1/8 to 3 3/8. 2 1/2 is pretty narrow. Grip width is roughly shoulder width. I use 21". The site the last poster gave you is good. It is Chuck Holst's directions that most of us use. A good red cedar or spruce 2x4 with vertical grain (lllll) is the best wood to use for a solid paddle. Try it-- hope you enjoy paddling with a GP.