Sounds like things have changed in the move to Newport. I rolled for the swim screen in the first week along with two others. I didn't touch bottom, definitely wasn't drowning, and my classmates said they didn't see why they failed me either. Maybe they were just being nice, my strokes did kind of suck, but I think that the person doing the screen was pretty anal because there were no rolls for swim for the next couple classes, and then all of a sudden I remember several rolling from an incoming class. That's neither here nor there though, I was smart enough to come back and work on my strokes while I was in A-pool, which I recommend to any weaker swimmers. I'm hardly typical, I had to take swimming lessons before I submitted my application just so I could say I could swim. If you're comfortable in the water, can do 25 yards of breast or crawl, and don't have any problems jumping off a fifteen-foot platform (may have been twelve, this is in P'cola), you shouldn't have any trouble. As for API, you will do a fair amount of swimming in boots. The thing to look out for there is that the boots are all pretty jacked up, and I remember getting a pretty nice abrasion on the back of my heel; socks may help, I can't see how they'd hurt. One bad piece of gouge, in my opinion, is to wear a T-shirt under your flight suit for the mile. It didn't help me at all, I still got some pretty good chafing. Maybe underarmor would be good; whatever it is has to be skin-tight or it's just going to add to the problem. Finally, some might tell you that a bigger flight suit will slow you down, but I was slowed down more by the rubbing from the suit I was wearing, and I think a bigger one might have been better. Just try and figure it out while you're doing the practice laps in API, if I made it you probably can.