shaping a longboard

I need some help from you guys.I want to shape a longboard I shaped some boards when I was younger Im good with my hands have an engineering background but I need some help where to start.I surf mainly heavy beach breaks here in Western Australia so Im after some tips on board design. Also when you get your blank with approx rocker and you have it on your stands how can you first check your rocker is correct when shapping the bottom and during shapping.And another question is how do you know the bottom is shapping level do you check it with a spirit level during shapping. How do you also shape concave in the nose area. Great discussion group hope you can help