[grigor]

I too have a relatively new Otter Brittanic and 200 undersuit, dive with a steel 12l and am fairly new to drysuits - I too piled on a bit of lead first time out. The good news is that I've been shedding it ever since.

I found that the positioning of the shoulder dump meant I had an air volume across my shoulders that I struggled to vent. As my trim and general position improved I found the problem cured itself - the dump wasn't in the wrong place, I was. Looking back, I realise that the thick undersuit and my poor trim meant I didn't free trapped air until well into the dive.

At the time I received some good advice: don't worry about adding a little extra lead to begin with, focus instead on removing some as you settle down and learn the suit. I now check my buoyancy at the end of easy dives after my safety stop - thankfully my buddy doesn't mind being passed bits of lead. I'm learning to hate lead (just ask my back) and take every opportunity to shed some.

A handy extra is that the difference between your fresh and salt weightings should be around 3% of your total weight. In rough terms: stand on the bathroom scales with all your gear and your correct lead for fresh water, multiply the number you get by 0.03 and that is the amount you should add for salt water. At say 100kg, 64kg (10 stone) + 14kg (ish) tank + 10kg (fresh water lead) + 12kg (other bits), would mean you need 3kg extra for salt water.

If you want to account for air in your tank when checking buoyancy: multiply the tank volume (litres) by the remaining pressure (bar) by 0.00125. So a 12l tank with a 200bar fill would have 3kg for which you need account.

Hope you manage to get things sorted - I'm very pleased with my Otter suit and the 200 keeps me well toasty.

Cheers - Grigor