Normal and shear forces acting in surface gels of rigid-rod polypeptide poly(gamma-n-hexyl-alpha,(L)-glutamate) (PHLG) were studied using surface force balance with shear capability. The polymer was adsorbed to hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces providing strong and weak polymer-surface interactions, respectively. It was found that in both cases PHLG formed surface gels whose properties were dominated by polymer-surface rather than polymer-polymer interactions. On bare mica, PHLG formed a thick compact surface network whose properties were characterized by effective viscosity. In contrast, the surface gel formed on the hydrophobized surface had a weak structure and shear in this gel was dominated by surface slip. When long-time shear or high-velocity shear was applied to the adsorbed PHLG layers, the polymer underwent shear thinning, consistent with the nature of physical gel.