Thomasm Good question!
Given that the elastic material will instantaneously jump to its minimal energy state, it makes sense that it would miss those collisions, if the forces are not being ramped up during the first few frames of the simulation.
If you were to gradually ramp up gravity as well as the surface tension and whichever other forces are being applied to the system with some keyframes as part of your run-up, that should help to solve your problem.
Additionally, I would recommend matching the solver position and world Y rotation to your character's root joint during run-up.
-jj