As promised, today I tested (intentionally) the effect of swimming in
chest-high breathables while wearing a wading belt or not wearing a wading
belt. Here is my experiement, my results and my conclusions. It may be
suprising...

THE TEST:
I have a pair of Orvis breathable waders and a wide Orvis belt. The waders
fit comfortably; they are snug enough to not be baggy in the knees or butt,
but loose enough so that I can normally step up onto a height similar to a
kitchen chair, or squat down without the legs binding up. I think anyone who
owns waders that they would qualify as 'a good fit' have approximately the
same type of fit as these.

The belt I wear has a very wide back (similar to a weight belt) as I have a
stiff back and this belt provides good support. It closes by passing through
a plastic loop in front, then doubling back on itself where it seals with a
10 inch strip of velcro. The belt does not stretch or slip, and I normally
wear it above my hipbones, over my belly button. I usually wear it quite
snugly; it would be difficult to insert a finger between the belt and wader,
but it does not impede the ability to take a deep breath. Until now, I felt
that the prime purpose of the belt was to support my back, and even
considered not using it occasionally.

The waders have an additional water seal at the top, with an elastic string
that is sewn into the seam. This can be pulled tight once the waders are on,
and I usually do this, only loosening it to retrieve or store items (like a
camera) in the chest pocket which is in the interior of the waders.

I put the waders over dry swimming trunks, dry socks (red, of course...g)
and a dry t-shirt. I put on my wading boots (without gravel guards),
squatted down to press the air out of the legs, tightened the belt, stood up
and tightened the top elastic cord. This is exactly how I gear up when I go
fishing.

I then lowered myself into the pool by climbing down the ladder into the
shallow end, facing toward the pool. As I lowered myself, the water pressure
squeezed the air out of the legs, which 'burped' up past the waist belt once
I reached crotch-deep. Then, once I was standing in the water (about
mid-chest deep), I started walking towards the deep end of the pool. I waded
in until the water was at the very top of my waders, then proceeded until
the water was at my chin at which time I dropped down underwater and held my
breath to see what happened.

Initially, I was expecting to find my legs buoyant and floating upwards, as
has been stated so many times. I can definitively say that this is NOT TRUE
with breathables. When I entered the water down the ladder, the water
pressure squeezed all the excess air out of the legs, and there was no air
trapped in the legs or chest whatsoever. When I lay on my back with my legs
extended I floated very comfortably with absolutely no feeling of having to
compensate for buoyant legs, and could easily keep my face and mouth above
the water. When I brought my knees up to my chest, my lower body sank and I
took a position with the top of my head just at the surface of the water,
but I remained in the upright position. When I re-extended my legs, I again
floated shallow enough to breathe.

I could easily move with a backpaddling stroke, and I even rolled onto my
chest and dove downwards and was able to swim as if I was wearing just a
swimsuit. The waders were tightly pressed against my body, so I was able to
move my legs and kick very easily and without any constriction, without any
interference of motion, and without any complications from excess buoyancy.

Then I stood up in the neck-deep water and removed the wading belt and
loosened the top elastic cord. Initially, the water trickled down the waders
along my back, but within seconds, I could feel the water in my legs and
socks. Again, I ducked down underwater and floated up motionlessly to see
what happened.

There was absolutely no difference in buoyancy, and again I was able to
float easily keeping my face and mouth above water. I was also able to
backpaddle easily and move towards the side of the pool.

However, once I started moving backwards, the water filled my waders
completely and the legs 'billowed' slightly away from my skin. It was not a
full 'ballooning' effect: it was more like suddenly wearing extra large,
loose pants. Whereas before, the waders were pressed tightly to my legs, now
they were loose and billowy. This looseness made a very noticeable
difference in my ability to kick my legs, although it did not affect how I
floated in a 'dead float'.

Again, I rolled over and dove underwater, and found that my ablility to swim
was impeded a bit. I could still move, but when I kicked my legs, the waders
shifted around and got slightly tangled in my legs. It did not prohibit me
from swimming, as they did not 'parachute' open and slow me down, but I
absolutely preferred the earlier effect with the belt, where the waders were
unnoticable. Imagine trying to run in extra baggy jeans, and you can
understand what I'm talking about.

Then I backstroked to the side of the deep end of the pool and tried
climbing out. Here is where the difference was most noticable. I was
absolutely and completely unable to pull myself up at the side of the pool.
When I was immersed, the waders were weighless, but once I got myself up to
where my arms were holding me out of the water, the legs and body of the
waders were so full of water (probably in excess of 150 pounds...) that I
could not pull my body out of the pool. Kicking did not help, as the legs
were so full of water that I could not bend them. The harder I tried to
pull/kick myself out, with every little gain of an inch out the pool, the
heavier the waders got and the more impossible it was to climb out.

I swam over to the ladder, and tried to climb out from the shallow end.
Again, once I got up so that my crotch was out of the water, the weight of
the trapped water combined with the full legs made it impossible to lift my
legs to the next rung. It was completely impossible to climb out: if I had
to urgently get out, I could not have done it!

I was not in a position to flop forward onto my belly to drain the legs, so
I climbed back down and swam to the very shallow end of the pool. I stood
facing the pool and managed to hoist myself up until my butt was on the
ledge with my legs still in the water. Then I tried to swing my legs out of
the water, one leg at a time. Even that proved impossible!! The weight in
one lower leg alone was probably in excess of 50 pounds, and I could not
even raise one leg up to the ledge beside me. I could have asked for
assistance from a friend there, having her lift my foot, but I also was
afraid of the waders 'blowing out' if I removed my leg entirely from the
water. I lay on my back hoping to drain the water out of the upper part of
my waders, but this had no effect at all on the amount of water in the lower
legs. So I hopped back into the water, removed my boots and took off my
waders before I climbed out.

CONCLUSIONS:

A fisherman might find themselves in a similar situation as I was in if they
were fishing a calm pool and the bank collapsed under their feet. My
experiement did not take the effects of falling into moving current into
account, other than the current differential when backpaddling.

Nontheless, I did discover that some 'myths' about wearing wading belts seem
patently untrue. In my test, there was absolutely NO BUOYANT EFFECT from air
trapped in the legs, as it was squeezed out when I entered the water. I
would maintain that any fisherman who was standing in water deeper than
their waist would have the same thing happen as they entered the water.
Therefore, there is no trapped air to float up your legs.

Also, the effect of the current on waders full of water is not pronounced,
but it is enough to impede your agility. Images of getting 'dragged down' by
waders full of water are ungrounded, as I was able to float at exactly the
same level of buoyancy without the wading belt as with it.

While swimming underwater, the effect of the belt was very pronounced. The
waders with the belt, contrary to common belief, were more snug and provided
no interference at all. The waders without the belt were baggy, billowy, and
were not easy to swim in.

The HUGEST effect, and a *tremendously important* one, IMO, is the
difficulty of getting out of the water. Although I did not try to get out of
the pool with the belt on (an large oversight, I think), I believe it would
have been quite managable, as anyone who has ever fished with waders on can
attest. However (and this is a BIG 'however'), once the waders were filled
with water, I was completely unable to get out of the pool!! I could not
pull myself up and flop onto the shore, as my legs remained lower than my
body and full of water. I could not climb a ladder, nor could I even raise
my legs out of the pool once I was sitting on the edge.

CONCLUSIONS:

I think if a fisherman fell into a steep-sided pool or stream while wearing
waders without a belt, they would quickly be in a very serious
life-threatening situation. The only way I can imagine getting out would be
to slice the waders open, or to somehow get them off. It would be impossible
to grab a branch and haul yourself out, impossible to stand and step up over
a bank more than 12 or 14 inches tall, and impossible for friends on shore
to pull you up unless they were able to drag 300-400 pounds (your body
weight plus the water in the waders) up an incline. Even if you managed to
get out, your waders would likely split open from the pressure or else get
torn to shreds in the panic. If the river was the right type, then another
egress option would be to find a shallow bank and slither onto it on your
belly until you were able to raise your legs and drain them. However, I
would certainly not want to hope to find a spot exactly like that if I fell
in the water.

FINAL ANALYSIS:

Until about an hour ago, I was one of those who theorized that there really
wasn't much difference between wearing a belt or not. I am now a complete
convert: I am even going to retrofit the belt I have so that it has a backup
buckle in addition to the velcro. I will *never, ever* wade without a wading
belt! Although swimming is not greatly affected, I now know first-hand that
it would indeed be a life-threatening situation trying to get out of a
steep-sided river with waders full of water.

Please, everybody, WEAR A WADING BELT!! If you think somehow its not as
graphic as I just wrote about, go to the neighborhood pool and jump in.
Hell, I dare you to lay down in your bathtub, then try to get out! Its
frightening!

--riverman