Surfing USA
 

I saw this and wondered if it was for real?

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/3707/

yeah its real, i saw the full version on the television a few months ago. Pretty nice, big waves and great heliflying

Well Im glad no one was hurt, it looked as though the surfer struck the rotor disc to me.
Must have been the effect caused by a telephoto lense compressing the perspective.

Thanks.

Just as well they don't have a tail rotor then.

Just another NOTAR safety example. Stick your tail in the trees, in the water, have mid-air collisions with surfers!:uhoh:

glad no one was hurt? that makes it sound like there was some kind of near miss - the Heli is obviously off the front side of the wave to get camera shots of guys jumping waves... looks cool to me!

The video clip was taken on the north shore Maui at a place called Jaws...The Helicopter looked closer than normal because the video was shot from the cliff, which is about 300ft high.:)

In photography, the term is called "depth of field." The shot was from a considerable distance with a telephoto lens making the surfer & helicopter look much closer then they really were.