For This Season, Quiet Storm Offers Four Locations, Inks New White Marlin Open Partnership

For This Season, Quiet Storm Offers Four Locations, Inks New White Marlin Open Partnership
QuietStorm new location

OCEAN CITY – Two Ocean City favorites have joined forces, as for the first time this year Quiet Storm will be the presenting sponsor for the White Marlin Open.

Bill Dreibelbis, owner of Quiet Storm, says he was eager to team up with the White Marlin Open, which this year takes place for the 43rd year in Ocean City on Aug. 8-12.

“We’re really proud of that,” he said. “We’re going to bring two Ocean City brands together. The White Marlin Open is the biggest billfish tournament in the world and we’ll be the presenting sponsor.”

Shoppers who visited one of Quiet Storm’s Ocean City locations this spring probably noticed that the surf shop had this year’s White Marlin Open T-shirts in as early as March. Dreibelbis says the tournament’s organizers are using his sales as a way to gauge which shirts will be sold at the event itself.

“We’re like a petri dish for them,” he said. “We’ll see what’s doing well.”

He said that it made sense for the store to support the White Marlin Open as it brought hundreds of thousands of people to Ocean City for an extended period of time.

“They draw a lot of people,” he said. “The right people. They draw shoppers.”

The partnership with the White Marlin Open isn’t all that’s new with the popular Ocean City brand.

Quiet Storm’s Ocean City locations saw several changes during the winter. The 32,000-square-foot Boardwalk store was remodeled and outfitted with even more of the most popular surfing brands.

Recognizing the importance of the event for Ocean City, Quiet Storm has become a presenting sponsor of the annual White Marlin Open and has been carrying this year’s line of apparel since March.

Recognizing the importance of the event for Ocean City, Quiet Storm has become a presenting sponsor of the annual White Marlin Open and has been carrying this year’s line of apparel since March.

“We have everything,” Dreibelbis said. “It’s the second largest surf shop in the country.”

The store’s 75th Street location also received a facelift.

“The whole thing looks completely different,” Dreibelbis said. “It’d been a long time and it needed it desperately.”

Quiet Storm’s changes didn’t stop there. In an effort to better serve the lacrosse community, Dreibelbis moved the Quiet Storm Surf and Turf shop from Fenwick Island to 123rd Street to a commercial center getting a major upgrade. The store features 3,300 square feet of surfing and skating brands and 1,100 square feet of lacrosse merchandise.

“We moved it to be closer to Northside Park because that’s where the [lacrosse] tournaments are held,” he said.

Quiet Storm held on to the Fenwick Island location, however, and has transformed it into Storm Brothers by Quiet Storm. Merchandise is primarily high end clothing for men, women and children. The shop also includes an array of fishing brands like Huk and Salt Life.

“Storm Brothers is a new concept for us,” Dreibelbis said.

Women’s brands in the store include Gretchen Scott, Barbara Gerwit, Beach House and Helen Jon. Men’s brands include Johnnie-O and Southern Lure.

“It’s a really new twist for us,” Dreibelbis said.

He said the decision to try something new came as a way to ensure that the company offered shoppers a variety of options.

“I didn’t want to have four of exactly the same store within 10 miles,” he said.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.