I think that you are correct.
This was further south at Carmel. Originally, the helicopters were there to just take videos and photos. As noted the waves were so high, the copters took the surfers out and dropped them between waves with their boards.
I remember that era, but the surfers still had problems dropping into those monsters even on their big guns, as used to be called. I was a surfer as far back as the early 60's with a 8'11 Bing around Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhatten beaches of the southbay of LA. Do you remember Dewey Webber and Jacobs boards?
I started again while Navy and surfed Ocean and Pacific beaches in San Diego. I was a better snow skier and never got into the radical cutbacks and such, but did tear up the slopes at Bear Mountain.