She was influenced in her decision by sponsor and extreme sports pioneer A.J. Hackett, who de Mooij said was "pretty persuasive".
"He was like, what would you rather be doing? And I thought yep, surfing… It's such an amazing opportunity and the fact that he really believes in me and supports me, it's so good."
But she didn't take much convincing. After getting a taste of the tour in the latter stages of 2017, de Mooij was eager for more, and once she learned she had passed her sixth-form year at Mt Maunganui College, that was that.
The youngest of the full-time Kiwis on the women's QS has already got her 2018 campaign underway, competing in the QS6000 Florida Pro in mid-January.
De Mooij won her opening heat in the competition before being eliminated in round two.
"My goal for last year was to just try and make a heat, so I was pretty stoked to have won a heat already this year," she said.
De Mooij travelled for the competition with fellow Kiwi and World Tour surfer Paige Hareb, and said she learned a lot from spending time with the tour veteran.
"She's such a cool girl. We got on real well and learning from her was awesome. Just seeing what she was doing before heats, her mindset, what she was eating – stuff like that."
The appearance in Florida was one of what will likely be very few in QS6000 competitions this year.
Entries into the QS events are based on rankings. And with most competitions starting in a round of 89 – a top 90 position is often needed to qualify. She has already missed out on a spot in the QS6000 in Newcastle, Australia next month and didn't have high hopes of landing a spot in the competition in Manly which follows.
"I was really lucky to get into that one in Florida…It was just pretty exciting to be there."
De Mooij will likely spend 2018 plugging away in the lesser events – the QS1000s, 1500s and 3000s – to accumulate enough points to achieve her goal of a top-100 finish for the year.
Outside of the QS, de Mooij is eyeing a spot in the NZ team to take part in the International Surfing Association (ISA) world games this year. It would be her first berth in the team, after narrowly missing out in recent years.
With the ISA competition part of the proposed Olympic qualification criteria, de Mooij said it made her want to achieve that goal even more.
"I'm definitely looking into the Olympics; that would be amazing. But I have to try and improve my surfing and get higher heat scores and do really well on the QS because those are the ones that are going to be in the Olympics competing."
