I played titanic once and Sponge bob once. One boat sunk, one trip overboard and down I went but I did come back up. Both times my chest waders helped me. I did have a belt around them to keep most of the air in and most of the water out. It is hard to swim with extra buoyancy but easier than with extra water in them.
Hypothermia and panic kill you in the water. Never hunt alone, in extreme weather. Never take a boat out and break thin ice which becomes thick ice which caused my boat to be damaged and sink. Being lucky, young and dumb only goes so far. But we all did stupid things when younger. Many seemed like good things at the time or we would not have done them.
Like a motorcycle driver always be thinking about what you will do if it goes to hell duck hunters need to be constantly thinking about what you could do in case of a problem.
