water jewelry loss depth?

I've been wondering is there a depth in a lake/ocean where people lose jewelry the most?
I'm thinking around waist level....

Waist to chest is where most people stand/swim and play. Hands get to moving or the rings are to loose with the colder water and sand. Depending on the sand its dropped in such as depth to hard pan it may or may not move. That seems to be a good reason we hunt the low tides and wet sand.... recent drops or drops lost in shallower sand farther out.

Dew

Yes........ the bell-curve is at the 3' to approx 4-1/4' depth; but................ NEVER forget (if you are a ocean hunter)....... that tides will change the location of this bandwidth (of 3' to 4-1/4') area! Even lakes........... especially large lakes........ are also tide-driven.

Ok...that's what I thought.
I've noticed in the lake I hunt in that there is a area just beyond the swimming zone where it actually gets shallow and people are out there and the water is only waist level. However, to get there you have to go through neck deep water. I know detectorists are hunting out there and I know there's probably stuff to find but it seems by time the swimmers had got out there they would have lost their jewelry anyway.

Average wise all posters are right on...remember this is where most of the adult activity goes on and hands must get wet causing shrinkage thus loss of rings.
Do remember mother dear caring for her tots in a foot or two of water and may never even go in swimming and loose a hunker of a wedding ring as she was just sunbathing and thus never took the expensive jewelry off so one never knows.
As far as tides and such like trying to figure out how high is up is my theory but working the tide out do look for low spots and declevities as goodies are most likely to end up there...

I kinda follow Dan-PA's thinking. If you watch people where water is, most of the phyical activitity, horseplay etc occurs from the waters edge to waist deep water. In my mind all that movement is what causes jewelry loss. The preceding statement is most applicable in non-ocean waters. Ocean tides/currents make jewelry location a crapshoot. JMHO

How long does it take for a ring on firm sand in that depth to become completely buried?

It would depend on whether your talking lake (big or small?) or ocean. In the ocean depending on the depth of hardpan, which could be from 6" to ??? and then in the ocean with tidal action in a matter of seconds, rings could sink a couple of feet, coins go slower due to their surface space. In lakes that have clay bottoms things dont sink very much (and a nightmare to work in), then theres the lake bottoms that have sand with clay under them. I have found items (old silver coins) will stop once they go through the sand and hit clay.

All this is explained in great detail in the Beach/Relic Hunting DVD set.