balance and pop

I am at the point where I can clear the wake easily boy hs and ts and am working on the height. My problem is that when I work for the bigger pop by really edging hard at the last second all the way through the wake I seem to get bucked off balance about half the time. I try to keep the handle down and look the out across the wake but it seems like I am going backwards. I tried leaving my wake smaller by using less ballast and that helped some but I really want to be able to get the pop down so I can start other tricks. Any tips?