The dream of reopening a famed windsurfing spot known as ?The Ponds" in the California desert has been put on hold after the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ruled to divert water to fill a huge new reservoir east of Los Angeles, leaving the ponds empty and unusable. The man-made channels are carved in the desert 110 miles east of Los Angeles and in typical years are filled with Colorado River water supplying 250,000 people.

The channels are about a football field in width, and some are over four football fields in length, positioned to a right angle to the prevailing wind, allowing optimal wind angles and the thing windsurfers crave: speed. With desert wind gusts regularly exceeding 50 mph and little fetch in the structures, the flat conditions are ideal for windsurfing.

Built in 1973, the area was closed by the Coachella Valley Water District in 1987, fearing the combination of windsurfers, personal watercraft and alcohol created a liability time bomb. ``We were not opposed at any time for some vendor to take responsibility and control it, someone who would indemnify us so we weren't liable,'' said Owen McCook, the water district's assistant general manager.

Last year the water district signed a 35-year lease with Palm Springs Windsurfing to turn three of the ponds into a 90-acre sailing park. Up to 300 windsurfers were expected on weekends with the proposed opening to happen next month. However the Metropolitan Water District?s ruling nixed the plan after it decided the water normally sent to the desert was needed to fill its new reservoir.

If reopened, the ponds would attract customers from across the West and likely would entice vacationing European sailboarders to stop on their way to Hawaii. For the meantime windsurfers are left with little else to do but wait.