Streszczenie
Downhill skiing and snowboarding are among the most popular winter sports. Skiers and snowboarders usually use the same tourism infrastructure, which often results in treating them as one homogenous group. This paper discusses some significant differences in motivations behind taking up the two winter sport disciplines. The analysis is based on an empirical research using the Canadian market survey as a model. It was found that main reasons for choosing downhill skiing include easy usage of ski lifts and high speed riding whereas the snowboarders appreciate the ease of off-piste riding and possibility to perform aerial tricks. Some results are in contradiction to common stereotypes e.g. social relationships influenced stronger choosing skiing than snowboarding, which may suggest necessity of further research conducted on a larger sample.