Best charting single that year? The Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There/Love Me Do - all of seven weeks on top. The EH Holden? One year on showroom floors before dealers shunted it aside for the gimmicky HD.

So, how long would you give a provincial offshoot of the surfin' '60s?

This winter, Merewether Surfboard Club will turn 50. The gold anniversary celebrations will peak with a big bash at Newcastle City Hall on June 28, but the celebrations have already started.

Last month, the Newcastle outfit won the Kirra Teams Challenge, the symbol of club supremacy, from 33 of Australia's best clubs.

The victory came close on the tail of Merewether's club-of-the-year trophy at Surfing Australia's annual awards. That award nomination, penned by club patron Dr Geoff Booth, listed Ryan Callinan, Craig Anderson, Philippa Anderson, Jake Sylvester, Jackson Baker and Paul Parkes as members currently competing on the international stage, and 100 more entering the club's monthly contests.

In its anniversary year, far from rusting out, the pop item from '64 is enjoying gold-plated good health.

At times it's been less than perfect. Messy, in fact. But any community enterprise that survives death, drugs, divorce, dwindling membership, the Vietnam draft and even disco deserves its due.

The Hunter's coastal strip has generated a surfing heritage as worthy as anywhere on Earth. And Merewether figures in much of that storytelling. Why?

Mark Richards' four world championships (1979-82) rate a mighty mention at the onset of an era when clubmates Matt Hoy, Simon Law and Luke Egan were all on the world tour and Merewether ruled the Quiksilver Surf League. But there's more to the story.

Peter Thomson was at the club's 1964 formative meeting and surfed in its first contest. He was 14. He would continue to compete for 50 years.

In explaining the verve and resilience of surfing's most storied club, he makes a good starting point - especially since senior pioneers Ray Richards, Robbie Wood and Jim Newburn have passed to the great green room in the sky. The bloke they call Thommo, a three-time open club champion and life member, is considered among its legion of fine surfers. When Weekender spoke with him he was still in Queensland where he'd helped manage the team's Kirra assault. We found him standing on a Gold Coast verandah tossing up whether to paddle out at Snapper or Duranbah.

The team victory was a reminder of what he values most about his club.

"It's not just that we've been around 50 years," he says. "It's that we're still making statements. We're still a force. I'm so proud of that."

Back in '64, nobody imagined what lay ahead.

"We weren't looking into the future all that much," Noel Jackson recollects.

The club's inaugural treasurer describes simple times, modest ambitions. "We were all great mates. We went everywhere in groups. Surfing safaris, pubs, surf movies. We had a lot of fun."

Merewether's early history is a snapshot of the times: Salt-dipped, sun-bleached days, hard-partying, riotous bus trips and risk-taking in an era before random breath-testing when a night out might start in a Hunter Street pub and finish at Belmont . . . or Burleigh. A drinking club with a surfing problem? Maybe.

Two-time club champion Roger "Clemmo" Clements offered insights to the rollicking reputation. "To some, they were socially unacceptable years, but not to those who lived through and survived them."

Ultimately, the party scene created cracks, as noted in the club's published 25-year history. "By 1971 most of the original members had moved on for various reasons, not the least being the drug problem influencing surfing around that time."

Also, in that hippie era, people were dropping out of structured surfing.

Peter Thomson: "They wanted to go and live in a North Coast tree house, do their own thing. Competing wasn't cool anymore."

Mick Eggleston, the artist who designed the club's famous black-and-blue "little man in the tube" logo, did a tour of duty in Vietnam, as did clubmate Phil Winney.

Roger Clements: "Many of the older surfers virtually gave up because they found the shorter boards too hard to paddle."

Peter Thomson recalls a near-disastrous decline in membership. "We nearly went under."

They didn't, thanks to a committee of young surfers intent on reviving Merewether's competitive mojo. "The kids virtually took on the club," recalls Tim Ryan who had been persuaded by Peter Thomson to fill the secretary-treasurer role.

The young guys held the fort until the ascent of Nick Wood as a competitive surfer persuaded his dad Robbie to resume his leadership role as the club's fortunes again surged.

Mark Richards nominates the club's administrators rather than its elite surfers as the real heroes of the Merewether fable.

"What we've achieved has actually been a by-product of those who did the hard work running the club and contests." And this from a man named by Surfing Australia as the nation's most influential surfer of the past 50 years.

Under the urging of Thomson, a Tim Ryan-led team pulled together an unforgettable 25th anniversary ball for 600 and published a club history. Timed to coincide with Surfest 86, the celebrations included a surf-off against the cream of world surfing. Merewether beat a team of five that included three world champions.

Revived by a second round appearance at the 1986 Pipeline Masters, Ryan again took on the club presidency. His 1987-89 term coincided with a fourth victory in the Quiksilver Surf League championship. The team featuring MR, Matt Hoy, Luke Egan Nicky Wood, Simon Law and Mick Adam established Merewether as Australia's best-performed club.

"We had that Newcastle attitude of wanting to prove ourselves against the very best," Ryan recalls. "With four surf league titles and four guys on the world tour, we were, for a time, the undisputed top club in Australia."

It was a high-tide mark in the club's history.

In 2009, Ryan returned as team manager with a plan to restock Merewether's competitive ranks with its very best surfing talent.

"The idea was to get that energy back; have our elite surfers back in club colours performing at their best."

Its current predominance, typified by the Kirra win after a 27-year drought and the fact that its top 16 surfers all turned out for the 2013 Ray Richards Memorial, has re-charged veterans like Hoy and Egan and inspired the young guns.

Mark Richards wasn't surprised: "Whenever the club has lost its rudder, Tim Ryan has always stepped in and got us back on course. What he's doing at the moment has taken the club to a whole new level in all areas."

He's had able allies. Stability and growth have flourished under the 10-year presidency of Dave Anderson.

Crucial to the club's performance advantage has been the location itself. Its value was recognised in 2009 when a Tim Ryan-led campaign succeeded in having Merewether included on the registrar of National Surfing Reserves.

Jackson Brent: "The great thing at Merewether is that there are a number of waves and they all vary. Maybe that too makes it a breeding ground for talent."

And then there's "the mentoring thing" - the succession of torch-bearers who have passed on the club ethos.

It started with legendary water man Robbie Wood, a founding force, inaugural vice-president and fearless surfer. Wood and Jim Newburn dominated the early club championships with Peter Cornish unbeatable in the juniors. They were among Merewether's original role models.

Mark Richards credits Wood with his introduction to Merewether.

"Robbie suggested I start surfing at Merewether. It was considered a more experts-only wave because it broke on a reef and was a lot more critical. He thought it would be good for my development."

MR joined the Merewether club just days before his 11th birthday.

"My early memories are sitting on the beach watching and hoping that one day I'd be able to go out there when it was big."

In 1986 he paddled out at 30-foot Waimea on his way to winning the Billabong Pro in near-terminal conditions. The nervous kid caddying for him that day was a 17-year-old Luke Egan. MR is godfather to Robbie's son Nicky who, at 16, won the 1987 Bells Beach round of the world championship and was named Australian surfer of the year.

Within a generation "the mentoring thing" was fixed in the club's DNA. Literally. Of the current crop of contest surfers many are the offspring of the class of the 1960-70s. Family names like Adam, Brent, Hoy, Wood, Benton, Lynch, Ross, Lawrie and Callinan are as prevalent as ever.

As one of the surfing offspring of club champion Mick Adam, Jesse Adam went from playpen to paddling out at Merewether in a few brief summers. He started surfing at four and joined the club aged 10. "I was involved since before I can remember. My whole family was always there."

Jackson Brent joined in 1996, aged nine, a wide-eyed kid in awe of his father Kim's generation. "I've always looked up to Dad's surfing and his knowledge of the waves at Merewether. My earliest surfing memories would be guys like Brian Hoy, Glen Benton, Les Feighan, Ronnie Ross, Tim Ryan, Woody (Phil Woodcock) . . ."

The common topic among the current crop of surfing talent is the pride and respect they all hold for the club's history and those who created it. There's a fierce commitment to protect and grow that heritage. Jackson Brent typifies the attitude.

"I think the history is what I'm most proud about - looking back at who has been involved and having my name on the champion's board alongside people like Nicky Wood, Luke Egan, Matt Hoy, Travis Lynch . . ."

Paul Parkes has a different perspective. He had grown up surfing the Bar Beach-Merewether strip but hooked up with Catherine Hill Bay Boardriders where he won multiple trophies before turning pro.

"Whenever we surfed against Merewether, the Catho blokes used to rag on 'em. It was almost like the rugby league thing - where everybody hated Manly because they were successful."

He was coaching a group of surf prodigies he knew would benefit from the intensity of club competition. "I couldn't tell them to join Merewether if I wasn't a member myself, so I signed up."

Now 39, and still ultra competitive (he is the reigning Australian over-35 champion) Parkes believes ambitious young surfers should compete in the best company. In Newcastle that means Merewether.

"Whenever I'm talking to surf industry people in Sydney or on the Gold Coast I'm often asked 'Who's the next young talent coming out of Merewether?' They don't ask about any other of our local clubs. That's just how it is. Stars produce stars."

MR concurs: "People have been drawn here because they wanted to improve. For example, Simon Law came from Stockton to Merewether because he thought he needed that competitive environment to compete on the world tour."

International free-surfing phenomenon Craig Anderson and his sister Philippa came all the way from South Africa when they were groms. They now call Merewether home.

Today's young stars like Ryan Callinan and Jake Sylvester and up-and-comers Jackson Baker and Luke Hamilton benefit massively from the club's knowledge bank on how young surfers can best cope with the demands of touring and competing.

Surfing may be one of the most narcissistic of athletic pursuits, but nothing engenders greater pride than being chosen for a team event such as Kirra or the Jim Beam Tag series. Smells like team spirit? Definitely.

Jesse Adam: "It's always difficult because everyone bleeds black and blue, and I mean everyone. For example, clubs are often faced with members moving to other cities and surfing for multiple clubs throughout their careers. But Luke Egan hasn't lived in Newcastle for over 10 years, had many generous offers to surf for other clubs during that time but never, ever wavered."

As team manager, Tim Ryan has been blown away by the commitment, as evidenced on the Kirra mission.

"The boys were saying, 'We're winning this one. It's our 50th year and we're not coming home without the trophy'. Hardcore passion. To see Hoyo in tears after trying so hard for all those years and finally winning it just shows how much it meant."