Originally Posted by CoachBobM

Can you roll onto your back to breathe? This is something we recommend to open water swimmers who need to rest (or who feel that they need to catch their breath) when they're in water over their head with no pool wall where they can stop.

Bob

Originally Posted by novaswimmer

Cathy, can you not get a first breath after the initial push-offf from the wall? Usually that's the easiest one because one's body is in a good horizontal position.