Tackle in surf fishing comes in all shapes and sizes, and it really depends on you as to what you get. You need to ask your self 2 things, what are you fishing for and how much money are you willing to spend?
There is a myth about surf fishing that you need to dismiss before you get started.
1) You do NOT need to throw a mile of shore to catch fish. I’m not saying that there arent fish further out and sometimes you might need to throw as far as you can to catch fish but most of the time you will catch more fish by throwing shorter.
RIG
The 2 drop bottom rig is the easiest rig with alot of success. You can catch just about any type of fish on this rig from flounder to shark. If you are a beginner you should grab a few of these from the bait store to get started. These things are very easy to use, but i would recommend trying to find the ones that have the swivels with the beads. They will probably be .50 to a dollar more expensive but it is well worth it. The ones that are tied at each drop will eventually start tangling up and you will have to replace them. You will go through a couple of the cheaps ones by the time you use one of the better ones. All you have to do is put your hooks onto the clips and weight onto the bottom and its ready to fish.
Weight
There a bunch of different shapes of weight, the pyramid like pictured above is a great go-to weight for the drop rigs. They throw easy and bury into the sand well, plus are not expensive. The amount of weight thrown will always depends on your current of your ocean. The bad thing about the ocean is the current can change significantly from one day to the next so you have to be prepared. It is a good idea to keep a range of pyramid weights in your bag, 2oz-6oz will cover 90% of the situations you will have. I would advise starting in the middle at around 3-4ounces of weight, when you make your first throw you will know if you need to throw more. It is ok for it to wash a little but you want to find a weight that will keep it pretty still out there. Remember with weight less is more, if a 4 ounce holds without moving try going down to a 3 ounce, if this holds maybe try a 2 ounce weight. This will allow you to see more bites from fish without the huge resistance of that weight pulling it down.
Hooks
When looking for hooks in the bait shop you will probably find an entire row both sides loaded with hooks top to bottom. It is extremely difficult to decipher through, this will be something you have to play with you see what you like better. I probably keep more than 10 different shapes sizes and colors of hooks with me while i am fishing. To start though a pack of 2/0 and 3/0 circle hooks are good to grab. Circles are better about hooking the fish for you while in the stand, usually if they strike the bait hard they are there. Also i would say grab some 1/0, 2/0 or 3/0 straight shank hooks. When fish are ‘pecking’ at the bait sometimes these can do a better job of catching fish although you will have to pay a little more attention as these can require a harder hook set to lock in.
Stands/rod holder
You will probably want to grab one of these before heading down unless you want to hold the rod the entire time you are there. These range between 5-50 dollars, for beginning i dont see any reason to spend 25 dollars on a rod stand with a cup holder and all the flash unless you are into that then by all means spend away. I’ve never had one of the regular pvc pipe holders fail on me, but just make sure to get them as far in the ground as you can.