Panic snap

What is a panic snap?

A panic snap is a fastening that opens while under tension, with one hand. That is exactly what a carabiner and a snap hook cannot do: those clamp shut the moment force comes onto them. In Dutch it is also called a panieksluiting or snapsluiting.

How a panic snap works

By pulling the load and the closure apart. The English-language encyclopedia entry explains that in this type of snap the closing mechanism is separate from the part that takes the pulling force, and that this is why you can open it while it is under tension.

The Dutch-language entry shows how many worlds this thing now serves. In equestrian sport it sits on the halter, so a horse that panics does not hang itself. Sled dog racers use it to release a starting line that is already under tension. Sailors, kitesurfers, and divers wear it to free themselves from a line, and the tow cable of a glider hangs on the same principle.

There is also a variant that releases itself. Gerald E. Ritacco’s 1988 US patent describes a safety release that springs open on its own at a preset pulling force, meant for tying horses to a cross line. For bondage that is exactly the type you don’t want: it decides for itself when someone comes loose.

What you watch for with a panic snap

What happens after the opening. Both encyclopedia entries warn about the same thing: a line released under tension whips away with force. In a horse stable that is a danger to the bystander, in a playroom to the face of whoever works the snap.

The second point is weight. According to the English entry, panic snaps are usable for suspension with relatively light weight, and heavier masses are unsafe with most of them. So a panic snap does not replace a rated carabiner in a suspension point; it sits alongside it, in the line you want to be able to lose quickly.

The third point that same entry names almost in passing, and it is the most important: if someone was hanging from the snap, they fall after it opens. A panic snap solves the problem “how do I get this loose fast” and not the problem “how do I catch someone”. Anyone who uses it thinks beforehand about where the body ends up.

Where this fits on this site

Being tied is only pleasant if getting loose is arranged. If you want to know how I do that, what material I work with, and what we agree on beforehand about stopping, that is on the page about the BDSM date. Asking a question first is fine too.

Sources

• Paniekhaak. Dutch-language Wikipedia. Gives the description as a fastener that, unlike a carabiner or a snap hook, can be opened under load and with one hand; the names panieksluiting and snapsluiting; the use on the halter in equestrian sport, on the starting line in sled dog racing, by sailors, kitesurfers, and divers, and as tow and winch hook of a glider; and the warning that the snap can shoot loose with great force when it is opened under tension.
• Panic snap. English-language Wikipedia. Gives that the closing mechanism is separate from the load-bearing part and that the snap can therefore be opened under load, that released lines can whip, that panic snaps are usable for suspension with relatively light weight while heavier masses are unsafe with most of them, and the mention of the use in bondage, including the note that whoever was tied can fall after the opening.
• Safety release device. Gerald E. Ritacco, US patent US 4,742,605, filed 8 October 1986, granted 10 May 1988. Gives the description of a release designed to let go at a predetermined pulling force, built from an ordinary swiveling snap closure and an overload mechanism, with the tying of horses as its application.

Related terms

A panic snap is safety gear within bondage: the part that is there for the moment the play stops.

• Bondage. The practice in which getting loose quickly makes the difference.
• Carabiner. The rated coupling that does carry weight, but does not open under load.
• Snap hook. The quick coupling without certification, which jams shut under tension instead.
• D-ring. The eye such a snap clicks into, on cuffs, collars, and harnesses.
• Restraints. The gear the quick release is most often built into.
• Hogtie. The tie where getting loose quickly matters most.
• Suspension. The one rope form in which catching a load is more important than getting loose quickly.
• One bar prison. The other object where the closures must be able to open without a key.
• Wrist cuffs. The cuffs a panic snap most often hangs from.
• Safeword. The other emergency brake, which does not cut the rope but ends the scene.