Javolution and Woodstox are the winners of the StAX parsers. Woodstox has the advantage of being JSR 173 conforming StAX parser, which makes it usable for more applications.
JSR 173 defines a pull streaming model, StAX (short for "Streaming API for XML"), for processing XML documents. In this model, unlike in SAX, the client can start, proceed, pause, and resume the parsing process. The client has complete control.