NOTHING beats a shortened handlepole. shortening your pole also moves up your chinpad, which is the 1st thing your body makes contact with when youre getting your body weigh/positioning moved up when INVERTED.
shortened steering + shortened pole + shorter chinpad (like the CG Racing CF one) = THE WAY TO GO!
you can see my PFD hitting the chinpad in the attached pic.
shortening your steering helps, but shortening the pole is the better solution. it also keeps you lower and helps keep the pole down when flatwater riding..