The nicest surf rod I have is a custom SEAWOLF (Dave Fontaine) Lamiglas supersurf blank. I just had Dave make my buddy on Nantucket the same rod, really exceptional work. He is over here on his honeymoon right now and dropped it off at my house yesterday, talk about service! I am temped to fish with tonight to "test it out" but I better not.
CMS does a nice job for the $, they turn out many of the "custom" rods for local shops now. They usually have several guys making rods every time I go in there. They must do amazing volume. Several shops have given up making rods because CMS can do them faster, better and cheaper than they could. (they now get them from CMS and usually have the local shops name on them)
I think the supersurf blank (the 10' 1 pc MH ) blank has a wide range and can toss just about anything in your bag. More rugged blank than the Arra series .