Windsurfing near Conchas Lake, NM
- Ute Lake state park (120 km)
- Harbor Bay Lake Meredith (285 km)
- Lake Meredith Ceda Canyon (289 km)
- Morgan Lake, NM USA (329 km)
- Elephant Butte (339 km)
Oh, man, this place BLOWS! You've heard of Chinook winds; this place could be pictured in the dictionary beside the term (the text reads "snow-eating" plus some meteorological gobbledygook). What it all means is that it can be 50 degrees, overcast, maybe rainy, and dead calm all day in Albuquerque less than two hours to the west, while Conchas, NW of Tucumcari, NM off I-40, can be absolutely cloudless, 80 degrees, and 40 knots all day. Side-shore prevailing (SW) wind, sandy launch, pretty location, nice swell, never crowded on the water if there's wind, cheap or free camping, NICE people, stores and a marina, a town 30 miles away, very good fishing and spear-fishing, and lots of (too much?) water skiing and jet-skiing when the wind doesn't happen. GREAT memories of many GREAT windy days and cool nights linger from my 16 years of living north of Albuquerque and splittin' for Conchas at the drop of a barometer. When it works, it is absolutely, positively worth the drive for an afternoon on a sinker and a small sail.
When it DOESN'T work, it's pretty calm or gusty stuff. Sailing in the interior is always a crapshoot, and this lake near the Rocky Mountains is no exception. I tend to forget the skunks, however, and remember the days I've sailed for hours and hours and hours and hours and HOURS on a 4.x sail and a tiny sinker, roaming all over the 1/2 x 3-mile lake alone in waist- to chest-high swell (or the honest-to-God nastiest chop I have EVER seen if I deliberately sail just above the dam for kicks). We have seen overhead swell there all day on a 3.0, but that's a once-a-year special treat. 4.x to 6.x sailing is more common. Springtime RIPS, midsummer can power up a 7.5 MANY afternoons, and fall can be quite good. NM is a WINDY place, and its eastern plains are windy squared, given almost any meteorological excuse.
The favored launch is mid-south-side, just west of and below the obvious hill-top lodge. There's also a campgvround on the east (onshore) end, but launching there is tricky in significant wind. Çaveat: serious, prolonged drought can run the water levels way down, as they did in the early '00s.
If you're cruising through eastern NM on I-40 between April Fools' Day and Turkey Day, with your gear, fighting head or tail winds, you'd be a FOOL not to divert NW of Tucumcari and jump in the water. (Do NOT press on and plan on stopping at Santa Rosa Lake another hour east; it don't work.) One nice feature is that if you break a mast you can swim or drift back to the shore you're parked on; it's a pretty safe lake unless you underdress for April and November water temps.