aclark79, I very much doubt you've actually been in VRS. What you seem to be describing is incipient stage, which is about as much as you need to demonstrate to a student. What you need them to appreciate are the dangers and symptoms. 500'min isn't much. Take it a bit further to see it develop. 2000'/min+! UK and USA call it two different things but it pretty means the same thing VRS or SWP.
Anyway, can someone answer this question:- Why do a downwind quickstop or any quickstop for that matter?
I always thought it was purely a dual co-ordination exercise whilst training.
As for those people who seem to blame every R22 crash on VRS, I say to them, it's probably because they don't understand many of the other possible causes of crashes close to the ground, but it's easy to just say 'oh yeh it was VRS'.