Getting back in shore break

Say the wind died, but you are close to shore. You are down wind away from the ideal sheltered exit spot that protects you from the waves and there are 4ft waves and a shore break.
What's the safest way to go back to the beach?

if you have doubt that you can do it clean then deflate your wing, roll it up, lay on it on the board and paddle in. don't forget to put the plug back in after deflating.

Great advice to deflate the wing.
I tried to prone surf in with the wing inflated and it went downwind first, when you pop up on Foil, you catch up to it and rip the wing.

Shallow water can be very dangerous too. The worst situation I have been in was about thigh/waist deep when there was hard shorebreak that was aggressively sucking back out between waves. Found myself connected to a board lodged in the sand + connected to a wing getting sucked out in the current + waves pummeling me + tangled in leashes + a sharp foil in the mix. Completely overpowered and helpless until my leash belt pulled off.

Since that experience my strategy in any shorebreak is to wear a board quick release connected to my waist leash. On a sandy shore I would rather ditch the board and have it wash up separated from me and focus my efforts on managing the wing. Theres a risk of the board / foil getting damaged, but in a strong shorebreak there is only so much you can do to manage the board with one hand anyways. This wouldn't work on a rocky shore or anywhere with people nearby.

Before I go out, I always eye where a deeper little rip channel is. On a windy day I foil high right up to beach and launch off. But we have fine sand.
If the wind dies, as mentioned above, safest is to deflate, plug and roll up and paddle in.
Another option that works w sand is to slog right up to crunch zone, be patient, real patient, take off board leash, wait for a lull and Swim/Run as fast as possible.
Like I said though, try and spot a place where the waves aren't focused, usually won't be any surfers there as they are on the peak. If your gonna get throttled, send that board hard to shoreline and let it do what it's going to do. If you hold on to wing and board, either you or your wing is gonna take a big hit. Which takes us back to deflating if your in doubt about your odds.
Btw, we all pay at some point.

Yeah I was actually peeling off the wave at the end but my foil clipped the bank. Both leashes became tangled with each other with my ankle leash around the mast as well . We were all tied together , it was a heavy coiled ankle leash which has caused some dramas in the past I should have got rid of it long time ago . Next time I'll stop and release the ankle leash start again and go through . Been chatting with a few other riders in bigger waves are loosing the leg rope all together.

Looking for confirmation bias but I found it works okay to flip the board over, grab the mast and lie backwards into the wave with your legs under the board.

It seems counterintuitive to get the foil out of the water, but you can use the mast to lever it and control the board instead of having it flop around or decide to take off from the speed imparted by the wave. You also aren't going to bash your foil this way. It's less intimidating with head gear given the tail wing but - except for the steepest slabs, it's okay.

As for the wing - yeah deflating would be ideal here. Deflate, and warp around the mast.

Was watching some young rippers in Maui yesterday. At a spot like Hookipa it's terrifying coming in. What they did was foil at speed then carve aggressively upwind, close to shore, so that the board almost does a 180 and because they were carving so hard the board then flipped over at the end of carving, grab board under one arm and exit gracefully! I haven't tried it but it looked impressive.

Hookipa, the launch is small, wind is always side to side-off. In summer the shorebreak is a bit heavier(strange, because not much swell), but a 6feet dumping on the shore like OBX...that needs a how to video for sure!!