When I was younger I was a maniac wader. My thinking was, if I would
make the effort to wade into places that other anglers avoided, I could
reach unfished water. It did work, but it also resulted in lots of dunkings
including some total immersions with a downstream drift. Didn't wear a
wading belt and never felt handicapped by the waders until I got a place
I could stand up. Then there were problems. This was especially true with
the latex waders that I used to buy before neoprene came out. The latex
waders were VERY stretchy and would hold a huge amount of water. It was
impossible to stand up with all the water weight and I took on the
appearance of The Michelin Man.

In addition to the age factor, I think a good part of it was that before
neoprene waders, it was close to impossible to keep waders
in a condition that would keep you totally dry (at least for me) . And if
you were already wet, getting a little more wet wasn't a big deal.
Now with improved waders, if it's cold enough (or the water is) to
wear waders, I no longer want to get wet and modern waders do a
good job of keeping you dry. So I use the built in wading belt on my
waders. I haven't gotten a total immersion in a longtime but I've taken
water over top of my waders and the wading belt does a fair job of
keeping the water out. You'll get some seepage, but not alot of
water.

Willi