Fast drops

I used to surf the west side of where I live which takes a long drive and I seemed to have grown used to those waves. Now that I went do a local spot not to far from my house, it was harder to catch waves. Maybe its because I didn't go surfing in a month but it seemed that the drops were steeper and I managed to pull off one nicely but the rest of the day was turtle rolling and waiting. I was wondering how to make the drop feel not so steep and how not to fall off when trying to pop up.
I had a bad fall as well since I fell forward and expected water but landed on my board so I was flopping on it for a while before hitting the water.
