Matej Dolník is a Slovakian snowboarder, skater, insta star and amateur DJ all packed in one and wrapped up with a sence of humor. In the following interview, you will find out how is his searching for a girlfriend going, what is his greatest snowboard success, or how to get 1,300 followers in one year.
If I came across you on Tinder, what would I learn about you from your profile?
I started Tinder about a year ago. Peter Mercell and I sat in the apartment once and said that we would set it up, let it be fun. So now we have Tinder evenings together. I'll come home from work, we sit next to each other and roll it over for an hour or two, send each other girls and have fun. Sometimes we don't even talk, we are just sending girl's profiles to each other, so it's quite funny.
For example, I got there a photo in a corporate car, where I have written that the car is actually corporate, so that the girls do not think that money, fame and success will come with me. I also have photos with some heart filter, something in the mountains, something on a snowboard, but so far it hasn't been very successful, so it's probably not very well set up.
What percentage of your Tinder profile reflects the reality?
It reflects the reality too much and that's probably the reason why I'm not successful there. I also tried those applications where you can make bricks on your stomach, but it didn't look good at all, so I took normal photos instead.
Okay and some more information about yourself that you probably haven't mentioned there. Where are you from? Where do you live? Where do you work?
I am currently in Žilina, I move within the legislative regulations within the Žilina district, I am at home with my mother.
So you are keeping all the lockdown rules.
Yes, sure, I keep all the rules. I don't meet people, I just go snowboarding and I don't have a chance to get infected through Tinder, because I don't succeed in there haha. I live with my mother, she cooks for me, cleans up for me, takes care of me. At the end of January, I will move back to Prague, where I live in an apartment with my friend Peter Mercell. I also work there, at Red Bull. I am in charge of the entire Czechoslovak Wingsteam and Student brand managers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who take care of the largest Czech and Slovak universities.
Do you like your job?
I like my job. I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it, haha. But seriously, the work is really great, there are a lot of young people, the work is creative and I have a lot of experience from there, so I can't say a single bad word about it.
What about you and snowboarding? How long have you been hanging out together?
Recently we had VHS tapes rewound over Christmas, because we got them on the shelfs at home and my mother was complaining that there was a mess and that they were just catching dust, so I rewound them on USBs. We watched it and there were some nice shots from 2003 of how we installed a wooden bench and we learned the first 50-50 and the first boardslides on it. Of course, the boardslides didn't work out very well, because the bench was wooden and it always cut us. In the same year, my cousin and I did a jump and we learned the first backflips.
What do you consider as your greatest snowboard success so far?
Everyone laughs at me that it was the Paralympics haha. But it was not the Paralympics, it was the Universiade. I consider this to be my greatest snowboard success. I've always been the snowboarder - athlete. Everyone was cursing the competitions, but I'm a very competitive type and I've always had a lot of fun going to competitions. Boris Karolčík were going to all the competitions in Slovakia and even though I finished tenth, twelfth, fifteenth, I just had a lot of fun. Going to the Universiade in Granada, spending 12 days there with all those national teams, wearing national team clothes, riding there and finally finishing seventh, I take that as the peak of my pseudo-sports career.
When you were training for the Universiade, snowboarding was probably about training, learning tricks and so on. What is snowboarding for you now?
I basically never trained, it was about fun and about that lifestyle. To put it so pathetically. I always enjoyed snowboarding, I went to competitions and I learned new tricks there. For example, in the qualification I did tricks that I knew and then I started learning new ones. At first I was throwing myself like a bag and then it kind of worked out. There was almost no weekend when no competition took place. Together with Dušan Bizík and Boris Karolčík, we were attending all of them, had fun there and tried new things. And the same is for me snowboarding even now. If there were any other races now, we would do the same with the boys. But since they are not, we just go riding, we have fun. Now, for example, I bought a splitboard. Due to covid, the chairlifts are not operating in Slovakia right now, so I got it at the perfect time. As long as I can ride, I'm fine. Whatever it is.
Do you remember when you noticed the Horsefeathers brand?
It was probably when I had the subscription of Board magazine, where I first noticed the Horsefeathers brand. Then later when you started supporting Dušan Bizík. The funny thing is that this past year, when I don't snowboard that much anymore and rather make funny videos on Instagram, I managed to get a budget and I finally joined the guys who already had HF support. Until then, they made fun of me when we came to an event and Dušan had new stuff, Boris had new stuff and I basically only had discounts. But I always had a positive attitude to it and I always enjoyed those stuff, I enjoyed wearing them and I liked to ride in them. Overall, I have a very good relationship with the people from Horsefeathers, we get along very well and we can discuss any topics together, so I really enjoy the support. It is not at all as sharp as it was with other sponsors that I got. Here I just do what I enjoy the most and it kinda works.
Do you have any favorite piece from the new collection?
It will probably be a Norman atrip jacket. At first I didn't like it very much, I found the colour a little bit too much for me, but I didn't hesitate, I didn't make that mistake. I got advice from my fashion guru, Kika Hledíková and I pick that one. At first I was afraid that the color would be so macaw bright green, but now I really like it. It is juicy but simple. I like to wear it.
Looking back to 2020, how would you describe it objectively? What was 2020 like for you?
When I look at it qualitatively, it was quite nice, I managed to ride enough for the restrictions, I skated a lot, as it was possible to ride since May and I also spent a lot of time at home. In March and April, we were still snowboardtouring in Jasná resort in Slovakia, so the covid didn't affect me that much. During the summer it was, I call it, a break from the covid, we could enjoy several events, hike in the mountains and so on. And now, during the winter, I may be even happier that the chairlifts are off, because there are not so many people on the slopes and you can enjoy the mountains. It is supposte to start snowing so it will be great. And when I look at it quantitatively, there are +1300 followers on Instagram.
And that's not bad, haha.
And that's not bad. There is a lot of time spent behind it, along with my mom, which I filmed on my Instagram, so I'd like to thank her. She attracted at least 300 of them, if not more. So I would say it was my success in 2020. 1300 followers plus and thus I overtook Boris Karolčík by 700 followers, who no longer has a chance to catch up with me haha.
Do you have such an internal battle for followers?
Yes. We started this battle 3-4 years ago when we both had about 900 followers and we started to compete in getting more. Boris then went to the Red Bull Can You Make It competition and started to gain more followers because all the teams shared profiles with each other. He recruited some 500 followers there, then started jumping in Hangair with Expl0ited (Slovakian youtuber), so of course he was followed by all the kids and he had a hidden profile so that they had to give him that follow, so he cheated a bit there. And I remember exactly that when we were snowboardtouring together in March, he had 2080 followers, I caught up with him at 2080 then, we had the same. He now has 2080 and I have 2700 so I win! I just completely cut him off. He has no chance.
I'm interested how DJ Gepard is doing? Do you plan to get back to it covid? (for those who don't know, Maťo is also a "DJ" who performs under the stage name DJ Cheetah)
Well, this started at one afterparty when I pass by the DJ desk, where my friend Škrupo was playing and I asked him if I could be a DJ too. He said sure you can. I enjoy listening to good music, I don't like listening to bad music, but sometimes the bad music can be a good music. I was driven by two things: there was a DJ at each afterparty who only played some specific type of music, such as drum n bass or rock, and the people at the parties didn't really enjoy it that much. And so I said to myself that there should be rather played some shitty but fun party music and people will enjoy it much more. And the second thing that opened my eyes was the party on one of the Slovakian summer festivals where they played music such as Ozone, Eins zwei Polizei, Offspring, Spice Girls and so on, and we really had a lot of fun there and I found out that this is exactly what I have to play at those afterparties. I'm not a DJ, I'm just the one that play music. I bought a console for 100 euros, my friend Škrupo explained me how to switch songs that I have on my laptop and I just choose music that I think people will enjoy. I played at some parties after snowboarding events, there are usually people who know me and have fun just by seeing me standing there over the DJ desk and playing the nonsense music we're having fun on. So much for my career, which was unfortunately postponed due to covid but I hope to get to those grams again as soon as possible.
And at the end, a few quick questions
Snowboarding or skateboarding? Snowboarding
Favorite snowboard trick? Backflip
Favorite skate trick? 360 flip
Tinder or Instagram to find a girlfriend? Instagram
Favorite influencer? Patrik Paulínyi
Matej, thank you for the interview and I wish you a lot of success in all areas of your diverse careers, whether snowboarding, instagram or DJ.
Follow Matej on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matejdolnik/
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