IF there's one thing the Hunter sports world knows, it's the difficulty of attracting, and retaining, sponsors.
Even the Newcastle Knights do it hard compared to the capital city teams, and the fact that the Newcastle Jets are owned by a consortium of their opponents shows how hard it is for other sports to attract hard dollar interest.
Farther down the sporting food chain, the task is even more difficult.
Which is why Warren Smith and the rest of the crew at Surfest know how much they owe to the sponsorship over the years to Burton Automotive, which has bankrolled the event for millions of dollars since their involvement began.
Corporate sponsorship, the theory goes, has its own reward, in the guise of increased sales and a higher profile, but with Burton Automotive and Surfest the connection is deeper, and more personally driven.
And that's because Kim Burton, one of three second-generation Burtons in the business begun 59 years ago by their parents Norm and Maureen Burton, fell in love with surfing as a teenager.
I know, because I was lucky enough to be part of the same crew who would gather with the locals on weekends and holidays at Hawks Nest, where the Burtons originally camped at Jimmys Beach before buying a weekender near the river.
When I interviewed Burton about his sponsorship of surfing this week, he volunteered without prompting that those five years from 1977 to 1982 formed him into the adult he became.
"We sponsor other things, the Maitland Pumpkin Pickers (rugby league team) and Peter Sleap's Sleapy's Foundation (a cancer charity)," Burton said on Thursday. "And Steamfest, my dad's 89 and lives in the same house near the railway tracks he's lived in all his life and he loves it. I think it's a great thing for Maitland. There's not too many bowlos or sporting clubs in Maitland we haven't helped at some time."
"And the Lotus Foundation, which helps educate girls in Thailand and Laos, and which is run by a friend of my wife, Jeanine.
"But for me, surfing is the main one. As the saying goes, 'only a surfer knows the feeling', and the good thing is that I am in a position where we are able to give something back to the community."
Burton said the Burton group of companies had put close to $2.5 million into Surfest over the years, plus "a least a few hundred thousand dollars on boardriders' clubs and individual surfer sponsorships". Presently, high profile surfers Jackson Baker and Philippa Anderson and Port Stephens up-and-comers Josh Stretton and Mike Clayton-Brown are backed by the Burton family.
Surfest coordinator Warren Smith said Kim had been an "an extremely generous supporter of Surfest and of various charitable organisations, sporting organisations and individual athletes across the region.
"Kim carries a grommet's stoke with him in everyday life," Smith said.
"By that I mean he has an enthusiasm and positivity about people and things. And that runs over into his business dealings too."
Sporting identity Gary Harley, a veteran of more than 20 years of Burton auto ads with surfers Layne Beachley and Mark Richards - among others - praised the family's community spirit.
The "Round Mound of Sound" - as Harley has often been called during his decades on radio and television as an announcer, commentator and advertiser - knows the family well and says Kim has been a generous sponsor without seeking the limelight himself.
"He's not a bloke who boasts about how much he is giving," Harley said. "He does it without personal publicity because it's a sport he loves and he's in a position to do it."
If Kim Burton is low key, his brother Norm Jr and sister Dianne are even more so. Kim says his brother was not a surfer and acknowledged the two had not always seen eye to eye on the surfing sponsorships.
"Our accountant has also pointed out the cost, too," Burton says, only half joking.
Burton says "we will continue to support Surfest", but says it needs more supporters and bigger players to keep Newcastle on the map as the World Surf League's new Challenger Series takes off.
In the meantime, he and Jeanine will be at Merewether for the rest of weekend, cheering on his sponsored surfers in the City of Newcastle Pro Presented by Burton Automotive, and the AAP Consulting Women's Pro.
Partly because it's business, but also for the pleasure.
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