What do the swell direction degrees represent? For example, would 90degrees mean it is a west swell?

Yeah, it means which direction it is coming from. West, WNW, South, etc.

The degrees r relative to due north. A 90 degree swell would be from the East, not the West.

PS- This is a good way to determine how good the swell models r for some of the major surf websites. l have often seen swells predicted for the east coast that say something like 4 feet at 10 seconds, 270 degrees. This tells me that their program does not consider the actual break location since, unless you're on the west coast of Florida, u cannot get a swell from that direction on the east coast.