Oda wrote a whole piece about how this works but essentially once a certain % (1/3rd I think) of your body is below the waves you cannot physically move and basically become like an anchor or wrench tossed in water. Interestingly enough Oda does specify moving water aka waves doesn’t take away your abilities or weaken you. So apparently that’s part of why Brooke can run on water without becoming weak or losing his powers, because normally any still water like a pool, pond, or even a puddle should at least weaken you a little bit. So in short it’s simply not possible to get into a floating position on the ocean without first submerging yourself below the waves at which point you become paralysed and sink anyway
This was also an important point in the debate over whether or not it would be worth it to feed a ship a DF, since according to the explanation given by Oda as long as enough of the ship is above the waves the ship shouldn’t sink or become weaker