Life's a beach for Josh Stockdale and Alex Boulton. Literally. The pair are being paid to travel the world, visiting incredible places while surfing, scuba diving and leaping into clear blue seas, along with partying, meeting new people and simply having a good time.

Well, someone's got to do it, joke laid-back Josh, 21, and Alex, 22, who are forging a lucrative career by posting quirky, fun films, blogs and breathtaking photos of their far-flung exploits, from Bali to Mexico, the Philippines, Iceland and Australia, on their travel website and social media.

As well as being brand ambassadors for a range of travel and designer clothing companies, an electronics giant pays them to fly to a different country every month in return for using their state-of-the-art photographic equipment.

The likeable North Yorkshire lads, who have been in a boy band together since they were at school and have 70,000 followers on Instagram, landed their dream job by chance after a short film of their first trip away together to Bali a year ago was viewed by 10,000 people. “We were just completely having a good time, jumping off cliffs and swimming with turtles and dolphins, to the sound of DJ Don Diablo’s electronic dance music,” says Josh.

Visit Indonesia discovered the film online and asked if they could use it on their website. This got the pair noticed around the world, encouraging them to set up their digital visuals company, Dream Beach Life, just eight months ago. “Now we have the coolest job in the world, creating fresh, fun visuals and digital content and social media for companies with a target audience of young girls and guys like us. It’s not for suits. We tend to live life like we’re in a music video.”

It was making videos for their current band :PM, which has enjoyed considerable success, that honed keen photographer Alex’s filmmaking skills. And since their recently released single, Grown Ups, has gone viral on Spotify and Amazon, it’s attracted even more followers for their Dream Beach Life brand.

Their first proper job was an all-expenses-paid trip to Cancun, Mexico, to create a video for Go Blue Tours website. “We partied for up to 19 hours a day for a week, capturing all their activities on film. it really was living the dream,” says Josh.

Then, when the multinational electronics company Panasonic spotted a stunning ‘human surfboard’ photograph of the boys on Instagram, which was taken using one of their cameras, they asked Josh and Alex to become brand ambassadors.

With their camera set up on the beach while they larked about in the sea, Alex, who has been taking photos since he was 15, says: “It only took a few takes to get the picture, with a decent amount of air underneath us, before we hit the ground.” “That was the photo that really started it all for us,” adds Alex.

After a top-level meeting with Panasonic’s top management team in London, to which tousle-haired Josh and Alex turned up in their trademark ripped jeans and T-shirts, they were offered the sort of deal that would make many of us green with envy. “We get that,” laughs Josh as he explains how they can hardly believe they’re actually paid to have a good time travelling the world, while being given £15,000 of the latest photographic equipment to document their journeys.

Their first trip for the company was to the Philippines, where they spent four weeks in luxury villas on five different islands, using local guides to take them to lesser-known places. “We went on quad bikes and hired boats to go scuba diving and catch fish to cook lunch on the beach,” says Alex.

Other companies, including Swedish lifestyle brand Zerpico, Hunter Boots, Jessops photographic company and the US company Extreme Sports, have also signed the boys up.

They spent most of August travelling around music and surfing festivals in the UK for Dream Beach Life and imminent trips to Bali and Australia will be followed by Norway, Canada and the Maldives. But first, they will be trying out Surf Snowdonia, the largest artificial surfing dome in Europe, before setting off on a 900-mile campervan road trip to experience the Northern Lights in Iceland. “We will be stopping off at all the beauty spots, picking up people along the way,” says Josh.

Guitarist Josh and drummer Alex met at their village primary school, near Ripon, and created their first band when they were just 11. Committed to their music, they got part-time sports jobs on leaving school. “I had no idea what I wanted to do but we were inspired by YouTube stars like videographer Rory Kramer, who travels the world with musicians, having a good time. I loved the idea of travelling for free, but it seemed pie-in-the-sky,” says Alex.

The pair are proud of being self-funding. “While our families have been supportive, we haven’t had any money from them,” says Josh, who explains that they do extensive research, producing detailed travel plans and costings before they set off.

Believe it or not, it can be hard work, too: “We have tasks every day, it can be tiring.” And saying goodbye to new-found friends is particularly difficult: “You get close to other travellers. Leaving them is hard.”

They’ll put up with it, though. “You can’t beat the excitement of waking up in the morning, after arriving in a new country at night, and looking out of the window at an amazing view,” says Alex.

One day, they plan to expand their company but, for now, they’re simply enjoying the ride. “We love getting back from a trip and going for a screening at Panasonic, sitting round a huge 120-inch screen, with popcorn and a beer, to watch what we’ve just done,” says Josh. “Then it’s a case of ‘Where are we going to go next?’ ”

W: dreambeachlife.com