I joined a Facebook Great North Run Beer Tent discussion forum today for Great North Run but I ended up speaking to a lady about doing breaststroke fro the Great Swim.

She advised against this told me to practice front crawl.
After a bit of research it is advised that you will feel the cold more and if it’s windy you’ll be getting mouthfuls of water. The wetsuit will also make you more buoyant making it harder to breaststroke kick and pull underwater.

A website advises to get in an outdoor pool asap with a wetsuit. Told to try side breathing (like front crawl) “Lots of leisure swimmers swim breaststroke in wetsuits at my local Open Water venue with no problems…. best to try it out first to avoid a nasty surprise on the day”

Basically try ASAP and if disastrous LEARN front crawl ASAP!

The lady gave me the name and email address of a contact from ActiveBlu.co.uk who does coaching for swimming etc and I asked her advice.