Surf fishing usually requires a long rod, so you can cast further. Then you'll also want to have a place to rest your rod while you wait for the bite. I haven't been doing surf fishing much, but I do like to fish from shore, because i don't have a boat and I can't always take the Kayak out. For this i use a 6.6ft ugly stick combo - it has been working out pretty well for me so far and the combo is around $50 i think. I also have a 7ft rod with a kastking sharky II 4000 reel on it - i got this real because it was super inexpensive, and is supposedly waterproof, so if i drop it from the kayak, i shouldn't have to worry too much about it... haven't tested it yet but saw some reviews saying that it really did work. I've also been trying to get better at using artificial lures and I found the Salt Strong community does a good job in helping teach this.
https://www.saltstrong.com/