How far out?

With good weather and water conditions how far out to sea are you willing to go:
1. paddling?
2. pedaling?

Depends if I have company, and the PB traffic. Mainly like to see land.  In reality a mile to mile and half down here. In areas I don't know I'll stay a little closer.

Paddling I would go as far 5-10 miles if there was something I wanted to fish for that far out. Typically I don't venture more than a couple miles out due to depth restrictions. I would  follow Mantanaska out if he would take me to the Pac Butts. I do paddle  a 29" wide 16' boat though. Easy peasy till the forecast goes all to hell and you have to paddle back into the wind that was not forecast.

   I've been out 5 miles from Moss, but, it was a late August flat calm day after several others exactly the same, and I was with a couple of other kayakers.
    I just do the math - 3-4 mph paddling speed if it's not right into the wind or big chop and nothing goes wrong, like gear failure or health problems (I guess that's under gear failure too.).  The wind can easily come up from nothing to whitecaps is an hour in Monterey Bay, though it usually takes a  longer than that, so that pretty much limits me to about 2-3 miles out, and that's if I have some good reason to go out that far, and the only good reason I can think of is salmon.  And you should always check weather reports carefully.
    Yeah, in Monterey if I'm chasing WSB or flatties in Sand City I'm 5 - 6 miles from MBK, but just a mile or so from the beach, where I'd probably make it to shore, though probably not on top of my kayak in the last several hundred yards.
     I'm sure every experienced kayaker has a good idea of how far they can paddle in a day and have anything left in reserve - mine's about 13 miles, so again, it's just a simple math problem.
     
   

If alone a couple miles or so. With buddies maybe eight. 

see land...  even far off and  good conditions as far as needed to catch fish...which aint too far...kayak angler---not kayak idiot...more than that is not too bright for me imo

I was out 8 miles from Moss 1st time looking for salmon.  Joined by this guy I had only met on the board.  he came paddling up as I exited Moss.

Chef Stefano AKA the Jade Pirate.  Flat glass....no fish.  He had gps and a few hours later pipes up "hey we're 8 miles out"  Holy crap, lets get back! was my reply.

Irony is I caught a salmon about 50 yards from the harbor on our way back in....

So, I've been 8 miles out, but not on purpose.  Luckily the conditions held.

Bushy

All pretty good advice. As far as I'm concerned there is no real formula. It really just depends on what you are capable of physically and what the conditions dictate. Use your head, exercise caution and go out with a buddy whenever possible. Don't end up on the news.