glassy waves at triangulo

lots of perfectly glass waves this morning at triangulo, where the waves were just big enough, at 8.5 feet, to make it break well. it's a famously tempermental spot, and the rule of thumb is that you need 9 foot swells and low tide for it to work. it is hidden behind a huge outcropping of rock at the southern end of the bay of lima, so you need a powerful swell to wraparound the rock, and the more westerly the swell the better. i think that wrapping contributes to some of the glassiness, but mostly the break is eerily smooth because the air is dead still. ain't no wind to whistle in there. this morning i took my longboard out for the first time there. it caught gobs of waves and even allowed me to paddle up next to a sea lion and say good morning to him. normally i ride my fish there, which works, but the rides are much shorter. on the longboard, the wave is big and open faced, and then walls up into something more tubey that requires you to srunch up and try to shoot through. the outside is very fat, but inside all hell can break loose in about one second. i pulled off the back of most of the waves i caught, unwilling as i was to be squeezed by a close out at a break that is known for busting boards. i got pitched there once and it hurt.