Quote Originally Posted by Great White7 View Post
I am doing the sidemount course now and am having a lot of trouble with my buoyancy and trim.

Often (even at the surface if I lay on my face) I will flip over (right side seems to take me).

During the first day I had problems with my legs taking me up, but now it just seems to be one side.

Any ideas (everything is in place as my instructor has checked)?

Is backmount similar to single tank rec diving (as I have zero problems doing single tank rec diving) for buoyancy and trim?

I thought SM would be better for my back in the long run, but honestly it seems likes more work (ie 2 to 3 trips to the water lugging gear instead of 1).
I am probably not the best person to answer this, since I have been sidemounting for over 30 years. I used to switch between backmount, and sidemount, but broke down all my backmount tanks over 10 years ago.

Backmount is pretty easy to get trim with, but I have seen people that could never get it right, and did fine in sidemount. I have also seen the opposite to be true.

How experienced is your instructor? is he/she new to sidemount, or has he/she been diving sidemount a long time? Like cmint asked, what rig are you using? That can make a very big difference in the ability to get trim.

What fins are you using? Are you using aluminum, or steel tanks? Do you have any trim weights? Are you training in fresh, or salt water? It seems like I recall you have had some single tank experience, how much?