mini gnarly

September 3, 2007 9:59 PM

Radical Rodents: Chopsticks, Bunsen, Harry & Curly, surfing mice. An Australian man trained several mice on tiny surfboards. More surfing critters, a surfing dog and another one. Surfing parrot (video repeats in a couple of spots).
posted by nickyskye (17 comments total)

How cute! I'm guessing that bunsen is a liberated lab mouse, but what about chopsticks?
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:19 PM on September 3, 2007

And curiously, mice cannot pronounce R's properly, due to their large incisors. Instead, these surfer mice express their appreciation of awesomeness by squeaking "Gnawly!".
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:23 PM on September 3, 2007

Previously.
posted by fandango_matt at 10:26 PM on September 3, 2007

"trained"? They look like mice who don't want to drown to me.
posted by dobbs at 10:27 PM on September 3, 2007

but can you teach a cat to surf?
posted by bruce at 10:28 PM on September 3, 2007

If you don't mind being scratched to hell by a wet, angry cat.
posted by stavrogin at 10:35 PM on September 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

all the way down, bruce, all the way down
posted by rob511 at 10:39 PM on September 3, 2007

Most disturbing to me is that the "good" rating button is labeled "booyah" on myspace videos. This will require some contemplation.
posted by maxwelton at 10:55 PM on September 3, 2007

I love your posts nickyskye, this topic's just awfully familiar for a San Diego girl.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:08 PM on September 3, 2007

No waterskiing squirrel?
posted by churl at 11:17 PM on September 3, 2007

I smell a rat.

No really, aren't those rats and not mice?
posted by Eekacat at 12:06 AM on September 4, 2007

Either way, their reaction to you is eponysterical.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:29 AM on September 4, 2007

(now that i've seen the vids, yeh, they're rats all right. such delightful, clever little animals!)
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:37 AM on September 4, 2007

No really, aren't those rats and not mice?

Aussie rats. Kick-ass surfers!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:43 AM on September 4, 2007

I think they could pass that Australia citizenship test we saw on the blue a few days back...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:43 AM on September 4, 2007

This reminds me of a show that used to be on TV when I was a kid - Tales of the Riverbank, featuring the adventures of Hammy Hamster, Roderick the Rat, and various other creatures, including a jeep-driving guinea-pig.

As a child I'd be entranced as Hammy and his friends would set off along the river on their raft, or go up in a hot air balloon. Guinea would 'drive' his jeep down steep hills and the raft would often encounter 'rapids'.

With hindsight, though, I can see that it's hardly kind to put a guinea pig in a toy jeep and launch it down a hill, or to set a few rodents afloat on a raft. I'm sure Hammy really isn't saying to Guinea "Faster! Faster!"

Likewise, the surfing rats would probably not go surfing as their leisure activity of choice.
posted by essexjan at 4:01 AM on September 4, 2007

This reminds me of a show that used to be on TV when I was a kid - Tales of the Riverbank,

You had me thinking you must be 18-19 until I visited your link and discovered that the version I caught bits of while getting ready for work at 5 a.m. in the mid-1990s was a remake of the original from the 1960's.
posted by smoothvirus at 6:49 AM on September 4, 2007