It greatly depends on where it is, what type of surf, the bottom typography, sandy slope or rocky, etc.
There are no two identical situations and there is no one style that fits all with surf entry/exits.
At Monastery beach in Carmel, CA which is regarded as the Mount Everest of surf entry exits, the protocol will be entirely different than a very gradual sandy slope with waist high mushers rolling in like they would have at many Socal beaches like in Malibu.
The very rocky entries/exits in Norcal will be a lot different than nice gradual sandy beach entry/exits, and ever Monastery.
Then at San Carlos beach (Breakwater in Monterey) where a lot of OW classes are conducted, the beach is generally pretty benign.
However, it can be very deceiving in power when there is a ground swell coming in, it may appear to be benign because of the lack of a well formed breaking wave. Instead there is more of a strong tidal surge that keeps flooding in and keeps coming in, then it recedes going out and out and keeps going out and it will suck you out without you being able to do much about it. This is caused by a big swell on the outside but the protected area of the breakwater are still affected by the long interval swell. I've seen OW classes where they teach to hold hands facing each other with fins on and they side step in. A big swell
will come in and knock the people down which are generally overweighted and stuffed into ill fitting rental wetsuits and it's a melee. At that point they should just crawl in on all fours with mask on and reg in mouth and head out but the DM's run over and help them up and they have to start over.
Most people in the know will march into the water and put fins on in waist deep water. Spring straps help for sure because they're easy to put on.
Short interval wind driven swells will create less surge than long term swells. Anything over 12 seconds is getting fairly long term. 14 and over is when swells begin to build real power.
Combine this with any significant height and you need to stay out of the water.
You will need to check the swell reports and look at the tide charts. Don't pick a day when there is an extreme tidal swing.
At Monastery beach on any given day that's divable, many people will fully gear up on the beach with fins on mask in and reg in mouth and side/back step in. When they are waist deep they will flop over and kick like hell. The beach at the surf line is dug out and drops off very quickly. There is a pounding beach break with very steep beach. Some people go in waist high and put fins on but depending on how bad the surf has dug the sand out you might find yourself in over your head with one more step out. A lot of scooter divers will clip their fins off on their harness then scooter out past the break then put fins on once they're out there.
So Monastery is a good case to fully gear up and waddle in or even crawl in with fins on mask on and reg in mouth.
In Socal where you have nice gradual sloping beaches, going in fully gearing up with fins on would be silly. The surf may look intimidating but once you tromp into the water you realize they are only thigh or waist high. In that case you can wade in past the break to chest high water and put your fins on. I always have my mask in place out of habit. 99% of my dives are beach dives. Having the reg in is open to more disgression.
Up here in rocky terrain, depending on the beach or the entry/exit, I usually have everything on including fins. A beach may look sandy but then in two feet of water it suddenly turns into slimy boulders that are knee/ankle busters. You break a knee cap and bust an ankle who is going to help you out on a remote beach with no one around? You need to think of this before attempting some silly heroics. There is nothing un-manly about entering the water fully geared up with fins, mask, and reg all in place. I am practicing crawling into the water on all fours and crawling out of the water on all fours more and more these days. I had hip surgery and I don't have full range of motion on my left leg. I have a lot of scar tissue and damaged muscles and tendons around the joint so putting fins on in the water is really hard for me. So my style has changed. I used to be able to charge in and slap fins on in seconds, now not so much. That's why I have become an advocate for going in fully geared up. It's safer for me.
There's one more. We've dived places where we scale down cliffs to giant rocks and ledges, no beach at all.
We gear up on a rock slab by the waters edge and wait for a swell to come in and rise up next to us then we jump out and flop in. Coming out it is in reverse, we let the swell pick us up and lay us down high and dry on a rock. This takes a lot of practice and it's something we used to do freediving for abalone, but it could be applied to scuba diving also.
You will also realize that over gearing will be detrimental to shore diving. That's one reason why you will see avid shore divers going more of a minimalist route. Less is more with shore diving. Having agility with less encumbering gear is safer than having a bunch of superfluous gear thinking you need it to be safe, when all it does is bog you down.
