Strategy: first or last wave of a set?

[bragnouff]

Been out this evening on a proper sizable swell 1.5-2m at 12sec, and coming with a few questions.
Context: it took me a few attempts to find a gap between sets, and bodydrag out. Got a few on the head without too much drama, but I thought after that that I would stay at the back for most of my riding. Riding the big swell at the back and coming into shore, and kind of exiting the wave before it started to break, so as to avoid tricky situations caught in the inside (still a bit of a newbie dealing with the foil in breaking waves).
So I was typically picking the last wave of the set to give me a bit more room to exit the wave without being clipped by a bigger one behind, and this worked fine, but quite a few times, I ended up full speed on that last wave of the set and being forced to ride it in the very airy foamy water left from the previous waves, and that obviously wasn't the best for foiling confidently.

So is it better to pick the first one of the set, and exit it earlier to be safe, or to pick the last one but taking the risk of some foamy stuff.