The Coast Guard cutter Kukui yesterday completed deployment of three buoys designed to help improve surf forecasts for north-facing shores of the Hawaiian Islands.

The buoys will begin providing wind and wave analysis for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as early as tomorrow.

The new buoys will give weather forecasters critical data, said meteorologist James Waymen of the National Weather Service.

"There was a gap to the northeast," Waymen said. "These buoys will allow us to not only track weather but also monitor the wave height, wave period and wave direction of incoming swells from the north."