My wife got hung up on the downhaul line on our Viper in a capsize and actually pulled the boat over on top of herself. We were able to free her very quickly but extremely scary. I immediately bought 2 versions of the quick release to try out, she hated both. One had a tag on it that said it would not release under load. Never tried the ball type. We now both have the Zhik T2's. On those I believe you could pull the Velcro and free yourself in an emergency.