If I may put in a couple of points, assuming that most of you here are stiff wing drivers and maybe not overly familiar with rotary ops and the background of towing from a hook?
When towing from a hook there are stresses imposed that the hook and/or frame are not always designed to take: within reasonable limits the hook load is expected to be perpendicular to the airframe. When towing, that stress becomes an aft pull at a point below and around the CG thus pulling the nose down: some airframes can cope, some cannot. With its tall mast and teetering head the R22 falls more into the latter category; towing a water skier from the hook on a 'loose' line would meet many definitions of high risk.
I know that CASA have approved towing of this nature under a permission, but one requirement was to have a heavy deadweight on a long line off the hook and attach the tow line to that weight. The pull is then on the bottom of the long line, keeping the line more perpendicular to the hook.
The other safety feature of pulling from the bottom of a long line (50 - 100ft) is to safeguard the tail rotor should the skier let go of the tow rope. Straight off the hook the tow rope could well fly up into the TR, especially given the sudden release of a force giving a nose down moment at the same time.
None of this is rocket science: it's just not particularly bright to let oneself be filmed for national TV doing it in such a cavalier manner, and then try to dismiss it as perfectly OK and safe.
It isn't, and it wasn't.